


The Story of Us

by AstridStarlight



Category: The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-04-04 03:45:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14011473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstridStarlight/pseuds/AstridStarlight
Summary: What if Clary and Jace had grown up in the mundane world? What if Valentine raised Jace and Sebastian together? What if by chance Jace and Clary meet one day in the woods? (Disclaimer:: why do you think it's called Fanfiction?)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is also up on my Fanfiction.net account, Astrid Starlight, so if you like this story you might want to go check it out there because I'm not the most consistent updater and it might already be updated there or some sort of note about why I'm not updating. P.S. I take FOREVER to update, just a little warning for people who don't like that, here's your heads up. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the story and I have another one if you'd like to go check that out, it's also on my Fanfiction account. Love y'all!

Once upon a time there was a young girl named Clary. She had bright red hair and magnificent green eyes. Clary was small for her age and people often assumed that she was about two years younger than she really was. And even after people learned that she was nine, not seven, they still continued to treat her like she was five. It often annoyed Clary to the point of almost being rude. Her mom told her that other people didn't know better, her father usually laughed good naturedly at her and told her to use it to her full advantage.

But because Clary looked so young and was smarter than most kids her age, Clary often played by herself as other kids her age usually didn't really let her play with them.

One day, while walking in the woods in her backyard, Clary thought she heard someone crying. Deciding to further investigate, Clary followed the noise until she came across its source. A boy about her age with golden blonde hair, curled up beneath a tree. He was hugging his knees and had his head buried in his arms. At furthered examination, she notice that his shirt and pants were torn, like he had just gotten beat-up.

"Are you okay?" asked Clary concerned. She was worried that one of his injuries might be serious. The golden haired boy's head shot up and he stared at Clary, almost as if he didn't know what to make of her. As Clary was able to now school the boy's face and features the first thing clary noticed, was that the boy had startling golden colored eyes. The second thing Clary noticed was he had been beaten up, or in a fight or something. He was beginning to get a black eye, his lip was swollen and several other bruises were beginning to form on his face, neck and upper chest that wasn't covered by his shirt.

"Who are you?" the boy demanded, his voice shaky partly from crying and partly, Clary noticed reading the expression in his eyes, from fear. This made Clary confused. Why would this boy be afraid of her? She didn't think that she was threatening in any way.

"I'm Clarissa, but you can call me Clary." She replied back, careful to sound friendly. Whatever this boy was scared of she wanted to eliminate it fast, then maybe she could figure out what had happened.

"Okay Clary, well then go on and play tea party with your dolls or something." The boy replied back sort of rudely, but Clary could tell that there was still fear in the boy's eyes.

"Actually, I'm nine, not five." Clary said, trying not to sound rude herself. Being unfriendly to him was not going to help anything.

"Then why don't you go and play with your friends then?" he said, still trying to keep the same tone of voice as last time, but this time it sounded more like he was inquiring.

"I don't really have any friends." Said Clary softly, sort-of embarrassed. The boy's face visibly softened. Something that looked like a mix between empathy and pity.

"Fine, Clary" he said uncertainly. "I guess you can stay. But only if you promise not to tell anyone, not even your parents or friends or anyone, about me. Deal?"

"My lips are sealed." Promised Clary, wondering why he seemed do concerned about anyone finding out about him, because he had even forbid her from telling her parents. The boy nodded at her and Clary plopped down underneath the tree beside him.

"What are you doing here?" asked Clary, trying to get a little more information. "And what's your name? I'm not sure if I caught that yet."

"My name's Jonathan, but you can call me Jace. And I usually come out here to think about stuff." The 'and cry' was added silently.

"Jace," Clary asked cautiously. "What happened to you? I mean, it looks like you got beat up or something."  
She could see Jace stiffen as he replied, almost rudely, that Clary was slightly taken back, "What happened to me is none of your concern." And Clary instantly dropped the subject.

Jace, sensing that he had slightly offended Clary, tried to change the subject. "So what are you doing here?" he asked.  
"Oh, I live here." Replied Clary happily. Maybe if Jace knew more about her he would trust her more. "These woods are part of my backyard. Well at least up until that fence somewhere back then. My dad showed me around our property one day and-" but Clary never got to finish because Jace's head snapped so fast to look at Clary she was surprised that he didn't get whiplash. His eyes were full of concern, worry and fear.

"Y-you mean that I'm on your property right n-now?" Jace asked, his voice shaky, his eyes looking wildly around as if at any moment someone would jump out and grab him. Clary confused at Jace's reaction slowly nodded her head. Unfortunately this just made Jace freak out even more. "I'm sorry. I half to go." Jace said hurriedly. "I-I didn't know that when I jumped the fence that I was intruding on someone else's property." Clary was about to say that he wasn't intruding when Jace finely stood up to go.  
Clary had to keep herself from gasping. Jace was starting to walk away, well more like a limp that he was trying to hide, and he seemed to be trying not to gasp in pain or cry about it. He also seemed to be clutching his ribs and was cradling his left hand.

Clary couldn't help herself. She had to say something, but she remembered how Jace had reacted earlier. "Wait!" called Clary, although she didn't really know what she was going to say. Jace turned enough to look back at her and Clary noticed that he gave a violent wince, she could see he was holding back tears. "Will I see you again? I mean you'll come back right? Or maybe we could meet by the fence?"

Jace took a deep shaky breath and his eyes seemed to sadden, as if what he were about to tell Clary would hurt him. "No Clary I won't come back and we can't meet at the fence. We'll probably won't ever see each other again, so Clary please don't follow me. And don't tell your parents about me either, like you promised. J-just do yourself some good and forget about me, okay Clary" by this time Jace had a tear running down his cheek and Clary wanted to cry too ,but that wouldn't help so she just nodded her head and watched Jace limp out of sight.

What was probably seconds felt like eons to Clary as she just stood there, not knowing what to do. She really wanted to follow Jace, or even run home to tell her parents about the boy she found in the woods, but she had promised Jace she wouldn't. And then he told her to forget about her, like he never existed, like she had never seen or heard him. And as Clary's thoughts ran on her confusion and sadness turned to anger. Jace had seemed scared about Clary running off and telling her parents. Like he didn't want the person who had hurt him to get caught. And then he had left, and Clary knew it was out of fear, when he had found out he was on someone else's property. And his reaction wasn't like a 'I half to go or I'll be in trouble, but my parents will understand' reaction, it was a 'I need to go because if 'they' find out I'll be beat again' reaction.

Clary suddenly connected the pieces. Jace was probably getting beaten by his dad or possibly his mother's boyfriend or something like that. She remembered some news articles on abused children she had read, because she was bored, and remembered that it had said children often beat from a young age, especially by an authority figure such as a father, often tried to hide it because of the idolization that the father (usually, maybe an uncle or even a mother) could do nothing wrong. Thus the child often blamed themselves for the beatings as if they deserved them and also tried to protect the guardian.

That's probably what Jace was doing. Trying to protect his father because he thought that he deserved the beatings. Clary felt outraged that a parent could treat a child that way. She also felt pity on Jace that he felt that way towards his father.

Clary felt awful. She had no idea what she was going to do. The article had also said that by the time the child recognized that the beatings were not their fault it was often too late. Clary wanted to help Jace, but he had told her not to tell anyone. And he had forbidden her not to follow him. Confused what she was going to do, Clary turned around and started to make her way home.

 

**Jace's P.O.V.**

Jace slowly limped up the hill, his ankle hurt from where he had sprained form tripping over a tree root. Usually he was more careful after Sebastian beat him but this time Sebastian had been particularly rough and Jace had wanted to get away from him as fast as possible. Jace was also sure Sebastian had fractured a few of his ribs when he had kicked Jace. That would also be a first. Along with the broken wrist he had received when Sebastian had twisted his hand. There had been a sort of a crunching sound and Sebastian got a very pleased look on his face. Jace had cried some then, only encouraging Sebastian to continue.

Jace had yet to figure out if not crying was worth it. It seemed like Sebastian's goal to make Jace cry, but yet when Jace finally did cry it just seemed to encourage Sebastian to make it worse, ending in a vicious cycle. Usually Father would step in before it escalated to bad. And Sebastian usually went easier on Jace when Father was home, so he could fake it off as 'boys being boys'. It was much worse when Father wasn't around. Sebastian would beat Jace until he was unconscious and then lock him in the cellar. There Jace was hardly fed and often beaten.

Jace also found that unfortunately the less time he spent with Father the less Sebastian beat him. It seemed like Sebastian was jealous of any attention Jace received from their Father, and he would take it out in his beatings on Jace. Often, when Father went out on business, Jace and Sebastian were left alone, with Sebastian is charge. There was no one else, no house maid or anyone, just the two boys. Both had been homeschooled by their Father since they were old enough. Bedside's Clary the only other people Jace had ever seen was Sebastian and his father.

For some reason Father had kept them both isolated for all of their lives. Jace guessed that had happened when She left. Sebastian's mom and Father's ex-wife. Jace was adopted shortly after. Jace had often asked what had happened to her of Father never replied.

Sebastian often told him, among other auctions, when he was beating Jace that it was his fault that his mother had left and that She had taken Her with her. Jace could only assume that She had been pregnant with a girl when she left. But Sebastian also accused Jace of stealing his father from him, so Jace wasn't sure if that resource was actually reliable. Plus, Jace hadn't been adopted until after the whole thing, so Sebastian had to be wrong about that. Right?

Anyway Jace's mind slowly traced back to Clary. Her beautiful green eyes and bright red hair. Jace guessed that she was pretty enough. And she had seemed nice too. And honest. Jace just hoped that she wouldn't tell her parents about him. Then they would assume that Father was the one beating him, he would get arrested, and then Jace would be left with Sebastian. And that would not be good. And yet Jace slightly hoped that maybe if the police came they would see that it was Sebastian and not Father. But that was too farfetched, besides they would blame Father for letting it all happen and he would be taken away and Jace would be all alone in the world, because he highly doubted that She would want him.

But Jace couldn't help but remember Clary's face when she had asked him if she would see him again. It was full of sorrow and pity. She had wanted to help Jace so badly. And he had told her to forget about him. It looked like it had hurt Clary as much as it had hurt Jace. Everything in Clary's expression when Jace had told her to forget about him was pained. Clearly she had wanted to help him.

'But that won't matter.' Jace thought to himself. 'Clary will forget about me soon enough. Then she'll go to school, make real friends, fall in love and, and never give a single thought about you again.' Jace froze. No that shouldn't bother him. Clary shouldn't bother him that bad. And yet Jace could help but think longingly of seeing her again. Maybe it was just to see another human besides Sebastian of Father or maybe he really did like her. Jace couldn't tell.

The whole trek back to the house Jace sort of lost thought in, not really paying attention to anything. It was when he heard a cold sneer that Jace realized that he had made it back home.

"Well, well. Look what finally came crawling back."

Jace didn't look up from the ground. "Hello, Sebastian. Is Father still home?" if Father was home Sebastian usually restrained himself from beating Jace more than once a day.

"Nope." Replied Sebastian, with a cruel smile fixed on his face. "You just missed him. He left for work. And he left me in charge."

Jace sighed. Just his luck. Usually if Jace caught Father early enough he could sometimes convince him not to leave. But of course Father had left before Jace got back, and he had also left Sebastian in charge. 'Well,' thought Jace. 'Best get this over with.' Maybe if he was luck Sebastian would knock him unconscious after the first couple blows. Then he would just through Jace into the cellar until Father got back or Sebastian got bored and came down to beat him again. Either way Jace usually wasn't bothered down there.

Jace's lack of resistance made Sebastian give a nasty smile, as he dragged Jace into the house and began to beat him.

 

**Clary's P.O.V.**

Later that evening at the dinner table, Clary's parents noticed that she was much more quiet than usual. "Clary," asked her mom, Jocelyn. "Is there something wrong? You seem awfully quiet."

Clary looked up in surprise. She hadn't noticed she had been acting weird, nor had she expected her parents to notice it. "Nothing," she said, then she looked at her father. "Well I was just thinking, Dad, remember when you showed me around the property that day? Well, how far is it to the fence?"

"Someone's a little curious" said her father Luke. "But yes I do remember, maybe 2 miles off. Why?"

"Just a little curiosity." Clary said idly, pushing the food around her plate.

"Clary, you didn't do anything did you?" her mother asked suspiciously.

Clary quickly shook her head. "No, well if you're asking if I jumped the fence then, no."

Clary's mother still eyed her suspiciously and was about to question her again when, her father interrupted. "For goodness sakes Jocelyn. Do you really think that Clary would really hop the fence? I mean, I took her back there one time and the fence is a good six feet tall."

Clary's mother sighed. "I well it's just that, she's always by herself. Sometimes it worries me what she might be up to without company."

"Don't be ridiculous Jocelyn. She's probably made plenty friend with the deer and the birds." Her father said, smiling. "Really, you know Clary. She's a good girl. I highly doubt that she's plotting to run away or something."

"You're right Luke." She said shaking her head, with a small smile. "I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I'm just slightly worried about what Clary could be doing all by herself."

"Clary will make plenty of friends on her own time" her father said reassuringly. "Won't you Clary?"

Clary nodded her head, but all she could think about was Jace and if he was okay or not. And whether his father was beating him right know or maybe if he was in his room crying. It took all of her strength to smile as she thought of the boy curled up in a corner as someone he was supposed to trust hut him.

Later that evening in her room Clary decided that she would check the spot where she met Jace, and the fence. And if she didn't see him in a week then she would hop the fence (somehow) and go looking for him. Or at least try.


	2. Chapter 2

Jace groaned, Sebastian had beat Jace for half an hour before he finally fell unconscious. Everything hurt all over, he was pretty sure that Sebastian had fractured a rib. Jace had tried to curl up into a ball but any movement sent a giant tremor of pain through his body. He was pretty sure he was going to pass out when the cellar door burst open, and Sebastian hurried in with medical supplies. His green eyes full of anger. The smaller boy could only assume that meant that Father was coming home. Right before Father came home Sebastian would pretend to be the loving older brother Father though he was, and bandage Jace up right as Father would walk through the door.

"Get up!" Sebastian snapped. "Father's coming home early and you need to look decent!"

Jace attempted to get up but quickly gasped as pain shot through his body. Sebastian rolled his eyes and drug Jace out of the cellar, not to gently, sat him in a chair, and began to work on bandaging his little brother up. "If Father asks, we got into a fight, you ran off into the woods like always, climbed a tree, and fell. I found you and have been ever so lovingly taking care of you." Sebastian hissed in Jace's ear. The younger boy really didn't need to be told this, it was the usually routine. Lie to Father about how Jace go beat up. Tell him that Sebastian was the loving brother Father thought he was. It never changed

Right at that moment Valentine Morgenstern, Father, walked through the doorway. "Boys I'm home!" he called, turned, to look at Jace and almost did a double take. "Jace what happened?!" he exclaimed, rushing toward his youngest son's side. Sebastian gave an indignant huff, and Jace realized that his older brother had a split lip, black eye, and a few more bruises. He must have done that to himself like always. So the idea of an almost fair fight had happened, because Jace was never in the position to fight back, and to try to get Father's attention. It never worked. Usually because Jace was more beat-up then Sebastian ever was.

"Nothing." Jace said, trying not to sound sarcastic. 'Best stick to the script' he thought, "Seb and I got into a fight, like always. Well I ran into to the woods, climbed a tree really high and fell. Don't worry Seb's been taking good care of me." Jace knew his father wasn't going to question his story. This happened almost daily. The two brothers 'got into a fight' and then the smaller boy would run off into the woods of their backyard. Well actually Jace had been jumping the fence since he was able to, but they didn't need to know that.

Father looked at Sebastian. He was schooling his oldest son's face and bruises. "Sebastian, you have to look out for Jace. You know how clumsy he is." that's what Sebastian called it, 'clumsy'. Jace was actually very graceful. Clumsy is just the excuse Sebastian had made up any time Jace 'fell down the stairs'. Jace could hear Sebastian mumble a "yes Father" under his breath.

As Father came to inspecting Jace's ribs, Jace couldn't help but let out a painful gasp. Valentine frowned. "Jace, how far did you climb into that tree? It looks like you have a couple broken ribs." Valentine paused to further inspect Jace. "And a broken wrist and a sprained ankle." 'Uh-oh!' Jace panicked. Father was getting suspicious.

"Well, I, accidentally fell down the stairs again. And I tripped on a tree root running. And when I fell I landed on my wrist." Jace said quickly, hoping it was convincing. And he really did trip when he was running. The other stuff. Sebastian bent his wrist back until it snapped and pushed Jace down the stairs, before Jace finally managed to get up and run for cover. Sebastian never followed Jace into the woods. Jace didn't know why but he hoped that Sebastian wouldn't start. That's why he was so jumpy when he met Clary.

Thankfully Father seemed to by Jace's alibi. "Jace," Valentine said, sounding exasperated. "You have to be more careful. You could get seriously hurt." Jace tried not to role his eyes. He was careful. If he wasn't he would already be dead by now. But he just nodded his head in agreement.

"Sebastian, go and get some more bandages and pain-killers from the hall closet." Valentine instructed, and he began to wrap Jace up. Jace tried to avoid eye contact with Sebastian as he sulked off to do as Father had told him. Jace knew that the more attention Father spent with him, the angrier it made Sebastian. Jace was the 'baby' in the family and that seemed to be where most of Father's attention went when he was home. Sebastian felt that he was being neglected and often tried to get Father's attention by hurting himself. But Father never really paid that much attention. Sebastian was never willing to beat himself up badly enough for the attention he wanted. Jace was always Father's first concern since 'Sebastian was old enough to take care of himself'.

Although Father's touch was gentle and soothing, it didn't stop the pain. Jace tried not to show how much it hurt to avoid more attention, but was unsuccessful. By the time Sebastian returned Father was almost done, and Jace was all wrapped up in bandages. Father gave him some pain killer, and carried Jace up to his room. Jace could feel Sebastian glaring daggers into his back with his emerald green eyes. Jace shivered. When Father finally left he would be in for it.

"Dad, it's okay. I can go up to my room myself." Jace said struggling to pry himself out of his Father's arms. And then he froze. He had just called Father Dad. He hadn't called Father that since was five. Ever since Sebastian had hit him. Although Father seemed to like it, Sebastian said it made Jace weak. The real reason was, it took all of Father's attention from Sebastian. Sebastian had told Jace he never called Father 'Dad' so neither could Jace. Jace noticed as soon as he started calling Father Father, Valentine seemed almost hurt. Jace suspected Valentine liked to sort-of baby Jace.

Valentine gave a small smile, gently shook his head, and said "No, Jace. It's fine. I've got you." Jace sighed and let his father carry him up to his room. Jace would never admit it, but he missed Father's love and care. He could also feel Sebastian's anger and Jace was pretty sure Sebastian was plotting on revenge. Father also must have given Jace some sleeping medicine because by the time Father had gotten to Jace's room, Jace was feeling rather drowsy, was fighting to keep his eyes open, and could barely think clearly.

Valentine tucked him in and Jace, not meaning to, mumbled "I love you Daddy." Valentine smiled, ruffled Jace's hair, and then gently kissed Jace on his forehead. "I love you too, buddy" he whispered into his son's ear. Jace suddenly realized the horror of his situation before falling into a deep, peaceful, dreamless sleep.

When Jace woke up, it took him a full minute to realize that Sebastian was in the room. And he was glaring right at Jace. And if looks could kill, well, the whole human population would be dead about ten times over. Jace could feel chills go down his spine. "So," Sebastian hissed, the words stung like snake venom. "Thought it would be fun to play baby did you?"

"Seb, I really didn't-" Jace started.

"Don't' give me any of that crap!" Sebastian snapped, Jace was pretty sure he was dead. "I know it isn't true! Do you thing I'm stupid?!" Jace flinched, he was so totally dead. Sebastian took a couple deep breaths, Jace was pretty sure Sebastian was trying to keep from strangling his adopted brother. "Lucky for you, Father has insisted on staying home until you've 'mended'"

Jace gulped. When Father left he was dead. He was about to explain to Sebastian that he honestly didn't mean to call Father 'Dad' when Valentine Morgenstern opened the door and stuck his head in. he smiled when he saw that Jace was awake. "Hey, Buddy, how're you doing?" he asked. Valentine sat at the edge of the bed and ruffled Jace's hair. Jace decided to avoid Sebastian's gaze.

"Err, good Father." Jace said, avoiding eye contact. Jace could feel Father stiffen beside him. Jace had been correct. Father did like to baby him. And now he was upset that Jace was pushing away.

"Well, that's good. I'll be staying home a few days until you get better okay?" Father said, getting up. Jace just nodded as Father left the room. Leaving him alone with Sebastian.

"Well" sneered Sebastian, once Father had closed the door. "I hope you're happy, because when Father leaves again, I'm going to kill you. Slow and painfully and make it look like an accident." Jace didn't look up and Sebastian left the room in a huff. Jace buried his head in his hands. He was in deep trouble.

Clary sat under the same tree she had met Jace at. She sighed, that had been two weeks ago. She was starting to believe if she had just imagined the boy in the first place purely from her fantasy and boredom. Although she remembered what Jace had told her about them never seeing each other, she had thought he was, well not joking but, not being serious to say in lack of other words. A few times she had even gone up to the fence at the edge of the property to see if Jace was just scared to hop it again, but he never showed.

Clary began to wonder if Jace had gotten into trouble. She hadn't told anyone about their little encounter, but she supposed he might've gotten in trouble for something else. Besides, Clary didn't even know how often Jace came into the woods. She was always out and just two weeks ago had she run into Jace. Perhaps they had just moved, or maybe Jace didn't usually come during the day and snuck away at night. Clary would never dream of trying to sneak out of the house after bedtime. Not only would she be caught, but her mother would kill her. Well there when what could be her only hopes of seeing Jace again.

The small redheaded girl looked desperately in the direction her friend had headed off to, hoping he would perhaps stumble into the small clearing. No, he wouldn't be coming. Clary could somehow sense that her friend wouldn't be coming today either. An idea crossed her mind. 'No,' she thought, 'that's too dangerous'. She stopped to think further on her idea. How much trouble could she get from hoping the fence? It sounded like Jace did it all the time. It couldn't be that hard could it? It had to be at least worth a try.

Clary set off in the direction Jace had disappeared in and soon came upon the fence that he had presumably jumped. On further observation Clary figured she could probably just slide through the gap between the boards, and she did. There s a small path that Jace had probably made leading from his house and the small redheaded girl set off to follow it

Jace was out in the back yard with Sebastian. Father was getting ready to leave again, thinking Jace was well enough to be left in the care of Sebastian. Of course Jace nor Sebastian would tell him that leaving the two boys alone together was a death wish on the younger one, but Jace really wanted to. He wanted to tell Father everything, what Sebastian did to him, that he was scared and still wanted to be held. He wanted to tell Father everything he wasn't allowed to.

Father had just left and the look on Sebastian's face was scary as heck. Jace knew he was in for it. Sebastian would not let him go for what had happened over the last two weeks. Jace prepared to die, accepting that there was no way things could end differently. He was going to suffer a very painful, slow death at the hands of his older brother, someone who was supposed to protect him from people that Sebastian was getting ready to do to him.

Jace supposed that he was seeing his life flash before him, most of it consisted of beating by Sebastian. Then it almost seemed to slowdown when Clary showed up, just two weeks ago. Jace could almost feel a smile tugging at his lips, thinking about her. He remembered the small redheaded girl finding him in the woods that day. Jace missed her, whether he would admit it or not, he did. Even though he had only talked to her for maybe five minutes, Jace could tell she had genuinely meant well and he had wanted to be friend with her. With Sebastian as his only main company, Clary was a blessing from heaven.

'You've got to stop thinking about her!' he told himself. 'She's already forgotten about you like you told her to. Quit wasting time thinking about her!' But Jace couldn't help himself. He wished he had stayed there longer, talked to Clary, maybe made a new friend. Unfortunately Jace couldn't, Sebastian would've killed him and if Clary had told her parents about the strange who she found beat in the backyard, Jace would be taken away from Father and placed in a foster family, and possibly with Sebastian. Father wasn't the one Jace was trying to get away from.

"ready to die yet?" Sebastian hissed and Jace sighed, the younger boy didn't even have to respond before the first punch was thrown and Jace was knocked to the ground. Sebastian was begin a lot rougher than he usually was and Jace wondered how he was going to make this look like an accident. Another hit came and Jace swore he heard a crack of his ribs breaking again. At this rate, Sebastian would probably beat him to death within ten minutes. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something flash in the light. The horror hit him that Sebastian had a pocket knife.

Was Sebastian really going to kill him like that? The small boy was surprised that the older one was taking such a gamble. There was no way Sebastian could pass being stabbed to death as an accident. "No!" someone suddenly shrieks, it took Jace a minute to register the voice, but as soon as he realized who it had come from he bolted up, ignoring the pain in his chest. It was Clary, she was coming out of woods, running towards him. No, Clary, she couldn't be here. Jace would never forgive himself if something happened to her.

Clary had followed the path and sure enough it came to a clearing where a house, a manor house by the looks of it. at first glance it looked like two boys were rough housing in the back yard. the Clary noticed that the older looking boy with white blonde hair was really beat up on the smaller boy, the one with gold hair. It suddenly hit Clary like running into a brick wall. That was Jace, and that's where he got the bruises. Clary wondered if that was the reason she hadn't seen him in two weeks.

Then Clary saw the flash of the knife. "No!" she cried running towards them. Jace saw her and she saw panic flood his eyes. The older boy's whipped around at the speed of light when Clary yelled. Clary almost stopped dead in her tracks. The look on his face was murderous and Clary began to fear for her life, even worse she feared for Jace's life. Now she wasn't so certain that Jace was getting beaten up by his father. Somewhere, Clary doesn't know where, she summoned the courage to yell. "Leave him alone!" she cried again, still running towards them.

"Where did you come from?!" the boy asked incredulously, almost more surprised than angry. Clary braced herself but the boy didn't move towards her. Jace had managed to sit up, but he was obviously in pain. The boy turns back to Jace, "what is this?!" he demands and kicks Jace hard, knocking him back down. Jace curls up into a boy trying to protect himself and it takes Clary a second to register what he was doing.

"Stop! You're hurting him!" Clary yells, the boy just laughs. Desperately Clary made a reach for the knife. She could feel the blade cut her hand, but she had succeeded in taking the knife from him. The boy pushes her back and Clary wonders if he's noticed she took the knife. Blood dripped down her hand, but the cut wasn't terribly deep and Clary didn't care anyway, she was more worried about Jace. "Jace!" she cried.

Jace was barely able to register Clary grabbing the knife from Sebastian. "Clary, you've got to get out of here" Jace just barely managed to croak out. The golden haired boy did his best to distract his older brother, Clary had to get away before she got hurt. Thankfully Sebastian seemed more interested in killing Jace than the missing pocket knife. Hopefully Clary would take the hint and leave before Sebastian turned his attention to Clary and she got hurt.

"Shut up!" Sebastian yells at the younger boy laying on the ground and kicks him again. Jace feels his vision go blurry, he fights to stay awake but he's loosing the battle and black spots dance in front of his eyes. The last think he remembered seeing was Sebastian turning toward Clary before everything went completely black.


	3. Chapter 3

Clary stood frozen as the white-blonde-haired boy turned towards her. Taking the knife from the other boy had barely done anything to distract him from Jace and now she was bleeding. Clary had never been more scared in her life. There was no way she stood any change against the other boy. She looked back at Jace who was obviously unconscious. What was she supposed to do now? Clary assumed that if there had been someone, like maybe a parent or guardian that was actually concerned were here, this would not be happening in the first place. She was on her own against this psycho maniac. At least there was the knife, but Clary doubted she would actually be able to use it against him. Then again, would this not be considered a life-or-death situation? Still, the thought of actually purposely hurting someone made her uneasy.

"Where did you come from?!" the older demanded. Clary still stood petrified in fear from the boy's harsh and deadly glare. She swallowed and held the knife out in front of her, ready to use it if she needed to, which she probably would. Her hands were shaking and she didn't feel very confident. Obviously didn't look very confident either as the boy laughed at her and smirked. Clearly he didn't think Clary stood half a chance either.

Taking a deep breath Clary tried to convince herself that this boy didn't scare her. "I'm your neighbor," she said as confidently as she could. The boy raised an eyebrow as if curious, though the murderous look did not leave his eyes. Clary looked at Jace's figure which was still lying on the ground, unmoving, and for a split second Clary feared unbreathing. She watched as Jace took a shaky labored breath and a small amount of relief came to her, though not much. He needed help, and he was definitely not going to get it from whoever this boy was. "He needs help," Clary says, a bit more firmly this time, though it was stupid to state the obvious, especially when she already knew the response she was going to get.

The boy laughed at her and rage filled Clary. "He needs help!" she said, more demandingly than last time, her temper as fiery as her hair coming into play. "You can't just let him die!" she cried, but her pleading demand fell on deaf ears which enraged her even more. "Do you not care what happens to him? Do you not care if he dies?!" Clary didn't care if she was stating the obvious now, and she was, Jace was hurt and he needed help. He couldn't die, he just couldn't.

"Feisty little thing aren't you," the boy remarks, still examining her with a curious fixation. An odd look suddenly passed over his face. "Do I know you?" he asked, almost dumbly. The question came to such a shock to Clary that she almost dropped the knife. How could he know her? Clary was quite certain she had never seen him before a day in her life. When would he have seen her? Out at the grocery store with her mother? The boy looked older than she and Jace were (he looked a few years older than Jace, who Clary was guessing about her age, and of course Jace looked older than her). Could they have met before she could remember? Clary supposed it was a possibility. But if it was that long ago could he really still remember her?

"I think I would've remembered your ugly face," she said with a lot more spunk than she meant to. Clary still had good reason to be scared of him and if she set him off on another violent and murderous rampage- too late. Anger flashed in the boy's eyes and he lunged for her. What little confidence and anger Clary had quickly evaporated and condescend into sheer terror. She screamed and just barely managed to doge him, though it did little to detour the older boy.

Jace was suddenly snapped back into consciousness when he heard a scream. It took a few precious seconds for him to process it. His eyes snapped open. 'Clary!'he instantly thought. How long had he been out? Even worse, what had Sebastian done to her in that time? He couldn't let Clary get hurt. Jace tried to get up and groaned, remembering he had a few a broken ribs at best. But he couldn't afford to waste any more time, not with Clary left to face Sebastian by herself.

"Jace!" he could hear Clary call out. Jace wondered it she was calling for help. Without looking he could already tell that Sebastian had turned from Clary back to him. Jace already knew what was awaiting him with Sebastian, but if it caused a distraction and gave Clary a chance to escape then it would be worth it. Sebastian would kill him later, if not now (in fact Jace was a little surprised that he hadn't been killed earlier, especially with Sebastian so set on getting rid of him).

"What are you still doing alive?!" he heard Sebastian demand. Jace tried to respond, but he was curled in fetal position in too much pain. He had to find a better way to distract Sebastian from Clary. Jace did his best to uncurl, but this was probably the worst Sebastian had done to him yet. Managing to get on his hands and knees Jace started coughing up blood. One of his lungs might've been punctured by his ribs when Sebastian kicked him. That would be hard to fix, Jace knew if it went unattended he would die. Jace managed to get on his hands and knees, but it he had spots dancing in front of his eyes and it just made the pain worse. He was already had feeling woozy like he would pass out any second.

"Leave him alone!" he heard Clary cry again. Jace tried to look and see what was going on, but his vision was too blurry. He tried to call out for Clary but all he could do was cough up blood. Jace could barely keep his consciousness. Clary needed to get out of here before Sebastian turned his attention back to her. If she could get back over the fence she would be safe. Jace knew that Sebastian wouldn't follow her over the fence. It was his best hope that Clary would be okay. And he would have to hope that Clary didn't come back.

"Clary, run!" Jace just barely managed to choke out, followed by more blood spit up. The he heard crying, it sounded like Clary. Had Sebastian turned on her again and hurt her. He suddenly felt a huge pain in his side and he realized that Sebastian had kicked him. At least that meant Clary was safe... for now. She had to run while she could. Jace tried to tell her to run again but he was already starting to go unconscious again. He spit up more blood before collapsing again.

Clary screamed. Again.

The older boy had turned on her and tackled her to the ground. That was when she had screamed the first time. Then she saw Jace moving and she had called out to him. It had distracted the older boy and she managed to kick him off her. It didn't really do any good as Clary discovered as he probably would have gotten off of her anyway. Instead of turning back to her, he turned towards Jace and yelled at him. "Leave him alone!" Clary yelled at him, hoping it would cause a distraction. Jace looked like he was going to pass out again any second.

Clary's yelling did nothing. "Clary run!" Jace had called out to her between spit-ups of blood. Then the older boy kicked him again and Jace collapsed. That's when Clary screamed again. She was about to start crying. That's when she realized that she had lost the knife. Fear sank to the pit of her stomach. Did that other boy have it again? Jace! What would happen to him if that other boy stabbed Jace? He would probably die; Jace couldn't take something like that.

That's when Clary noticed the man running towards them. It looked like he had come from the back door of the house. Clary didn't know what to do. She panicked and fled. Clary didn't even know what she was scared of, the man looked like he was genuinely concerned about what was happening. She stopped when she was far enough away to be hidden from obvious sight. The man ran over to Jace and the other boy, she heard him asking what happened.

The other boy's name was Sebastian; the man appeared to be his father as that's what Sebastian called him. And it made sense; the man looked like a carbon copy of an older Sebastian, same black eyes and everything. Jace, as it turned out was Sebastian's brother. Clary didn't get it, why would someone want to kill their own brother. On second thought, someone who was as crazy as Sebastian, something like that didn't seem so out of place. The man asked where the screams had come from and Clary quickly ducked behind a bush, not wanting to be seen.

Sebastian claimed he didn't know, Jace was unconscious, and Clary didn't want to giver herself away. She stayed hidden and continued to listen to the conversation until Valentine took Jace back inside to take care of him. Oddly enough the man seemed genuinely concerned about Jace. Clary wondered why he hadn't been outside sooner. Her question was quickly answered as she could hear Sebastian asking his father what he was still doing here. The answer was the man had forgotten something and came back for it; then he heard Clary scream and ran outside to see what was happening.

After Clary was certain that the man have taken both boys inside she got up and ran, only stopping when she reached the fence. She sat down, leaning against the fence, trying to catch her breath. It took her a few minutes to process what actually happened. At lease it seemed like Jace was safe. For now at least, but it would have to do. Clary wondered what would happen to Sebastian, the man didn't seem to suspect him in the least. A few more minutes of thinking and replaying what just happened and Clary remembered the man asking what had happened and Sebastian said something about Jace falling or something really clumsy. She didn't even think it was believable, but the man seemed to believe it. Clary wondered if he was dense or something.

Clary started to fit the pieces together. That man, Jace and Sebastian's father, apparently worked a lot and always left Jace in the care of his older brother. Sebastian would beat Jace up for some reason that Clary didn't know yet, and when the dad came back home Sebastian would lie about it and she guessed that Jace went along with it. For what reason she didn't know why, it was almost as confusing as why the man believed the stories that obviously weren't true. That meant when the man left again, hopefully after Jace was healed a little (guess that also explained why Clary hadn't seen Jace in two weeks), and Jace would be left to Sebastian. And next time he might not be so lucky as to have interference. Clary had just barely gotten there in time. She had no doubt that if she had been any later Jace would be dead.

'Stop!' she commanded herself. 'Don't-don't think about that. Don't think about what will happen to Jace when his dad goes away again.' After she had calmed down some she climbed back through the gap in the fence and headed home.

Sebastian trudged along besides Father into the house as he fussed over Jace, not caring about his other real son like her should.

Stupid Jace, always taking the attention from Father. Father acted like he could make up for what happened seven years ago with Jace. Like Jace would ever make up for Mother, or his precious little sister. Jace was just a stupid little- Sebastian was so angry he couldn't' even think straight. He would've taken care of Jace earlier if that stupid little girl hadn't interfered. He didn't even know where she had come from. Curiously Sebastian swore he had seen her before but he didn't know where. Then the feisty little thing had insulted him and he lost his patience. Father had come back for something he had forgotten and Sebastian was certain Jace had taken it to keep Father from leaving. That little brat was going to get it later. Thankfully Father would believe anything as long as it was better than his precious little family was still perfect. He wanted so badly to believe that he was actually making up for what had happened with Jace.

Sebastian remembered that day Father had gotten the little scamp. Acted like the whole incident with mother never happened. Sebastian hated the sight of the little boy. He was supposed to be a replacement for Sebastian's real family, and that little golden-blonde-haired thing was not it. Sebastian should've had a mother and a darling little sister. Instead he had Jace. And Father acted like it was supposed to be just as good. Well it wasn't. Jace would never make up for what Sebastian should have.

With Father preoccupied with the stupid excuse he was supposed to call a brother, Sebastian stalked up to his room. After closing and locking the door he walked over to the lose floorboard under his night stand and took out the only remaining picture left of his mother. After she had left with his beloved little sister, Father had removed any and all pictures of Mother like she never existed. Sebastian had been outraged that Father had done something like that. The woman in the picture was young; the picture was taken on their wedding day. She was tall and had bright hair, a caring look and a lovely smile. Sebastian remembered her like she had left only yesterday. He smiled and caressed the picture, hugging it close to his heart. "I miss you Mother" he whispered.

Clary got home a little bit before dinner. She was a bit dirty so her mother made her take a shower. While she was waiting for the water to warm up she looked out her bedroom window and noticed it looked like a new family was moving in. Clary could see a girl about her age playing in the front yard. The girl was tall for her age and would probably make Clary look like an even small midget. A boy who looked like her older brother was out there with her, holding a presumably baby brother. All three of the kids had black hair and pale skin.

The boy and girl were both attractive looking. The boy could be considered very cute, though he looked like the shy silent type that would be scared of the girls who thought he was cute. The girl on the other hand definitely knew she was pretty. Very girly-girl looking, not much of Clary's' type, they would probably go to the same school as Clary. The girl looked like one of those nasty mean girls that keep making fun of her.

After Clary had a nice hot shower she was sitting at the dinner table eating chicken tetrazzini leftovers that her mother had made yesterday. Jocelyn was walking but Clary wasn't really paying any attention at the moment, too busy still thinking about Jace. She we dragged from her thoughts when her mother said, "So what do you think Clary?" Clary gave her mother a blank look and Jocelyn looked exasperated. "Do you listen to anything I say?" she asks.

Her father laughed. "Jocelyn, she's probably thinking about the same thing and just doesn't know it. Clary you've seen that there's a family moving next door right?" Clary quickly nodded her head, trying to avoid her mother's frustration. Jocelyn seldom got more the very frustrated, but it did put her in a bad mood and more irritable. "See Jocelyn?" her dad asked smiling. "Clary's already thinking about making friends with them. You have nothing to worry about."

Clary tried not to look too confused as to not make her mother any more agitated. "Well what do you think Clary? Do you think you could make friends with their daughter?" Jocelyn asked. Clary didn't think she could, but she nodded anyway. She still didn't get why this was so important. Her mother read the look on her face and a more understanding expression came across her face. "The family that's moving in, you father and I used to know them from high school. I thought it would be nice to invite them over for dinner. I was asking if you thought you could make friends with their little girl." Clary supposed that she could at least try, and to please her mother she nodded.

Her mother smiles and Clary feels some relief, glad her mother was a little more relieved. "Good, I think you might like her. She seems to have a strong headed personality like you." Clary couldn't' imagine liking one of the mean girls, but she would give it a try. "I really hope you like her Clary, it would mean a lot to me if this dinner goes well. I would like to have a good reunion with our old friends." Clary nodded and promised she would try her best to get along with the other girl. "oh, and by the way Clary. Her name is Isabelle."


	4. Chapter 4

Clary was getting ready for school the next morning. The dinner get-together was this evening and her mother said there was a good chance Clary might see the two older kids at school today. Clary wondered if she would like either of them. The girl didn't look just awful, but she still made Clary uncertain. The boy might not be that bad. Clary sighed, she would have to do her best to make friends with one of them. She had promised her mother after all.

Clary looked out her window before heading downstairs for breakfast. Surprisingly the new family was already preparing to leave. The older boy, Clary had learned his name was Alexander, was chasing Isabelle around trying to get her into the car. Clary couldn't help but smile at the scene before her, she'd always wondered what it would be like to have an older brother or sister. Sometimes she got really lonely and wished she had someone to play with.

Alexander had finally caught Isabelle and now playfully dragging her towards the car. Clary couldn't hear any conversation, just giggling and playful squealing. Clary took a mental picture of the two siblings to remember for school. Maybe they would get along after all. Still smiling, she turned and headed downstairs to breakfast. Her mother was fixing pancakes in a last minute attempt to bribe her daughter into being nice at school and at the dinner. Clary didn't really need the bribing, not now anyways, but she was definitely not turning down pancakes.

After Clary had been dropped off at school by her dad she headed up to the third grade room. Most of the kids were already there including Isabelle and Simon. Simon was practically the only kid in school that didn't tease Clary about being a midget, (well, him and Magnus Bane) and he was probably the closest person Clary could call a friend besides Jace. Simon always sat with her at lunch since the first day of kindergarten and they both shared a mutual love of Star Wars, manga, and a few other things most people would consider geeky.

At the moment Simon was in the corner reading a comic book and Isabelle was saying hi to everyone. Clary could see him peeking out from behind his comic book every once in a while and she realized he wasn't actually reading it, but more spying on Isabelle. Clary wondered what he thought of the new girl, who as it seemed, had no trouble making friends with everyone else in the classroom. She also wondered if the black haired girl would even bother to 'waste her time' on Simon, who appeared to be in a sort of daze. Perhaps he liked Isabelle, she was pretty enough. Clary didn't know what she thought of that yet.

The teacher came in asking everyone to take their assigned seats and then introduced Isabelle (or Izzy, as she liked to be called) to the rest of the class. Clary didn't know if it was a curse or blessing that Izzy was assigned the desk between her and Simon in the front. At least she seemed friendly enough, and Alec had looked decent, so how bad could Izzy be?

Izzy, as it turned out, was very smart and quite social. She loved to answer questions and was usually right. Most answers also came with a very amusing anecdote involving how she knew the answer, several of them embarrassing stories about her older brother Alec. Izzy was polite and not afraid to get an answer wrong, though Clary did catch Simon whispering the answer to her a few times. It was harmless enough that she decided to leave it alone.

By the time lunch came around Clary was willing to ask Izzy if she would like to sit with her and Simon (and sometimes Magnus Bane) when Izzy walked strait over to Clary and announced (and slightly demanded) the she and Clary sit together (Simon was of course invited too, surprisingly by Izzy herself). The dark haired girl happily flounced over an open table and started to eat her lunch. Clary and Simon followed a bit in delay as Izzy had picked the table in the middle of the cafeteria, very far away from the one they sat at in the corner.

They were quickly joined by Magnus (who seemed delighted that they were sitting at a new table) and Simon's sort of friends (just because they were neighbors) Matt, Kirk, and Eric. Clary wasn't surprised when Alec decided to sit with them and filled the table. Usually it was Clary, Simon and Magnus at best (Matt, Kirk, and Eric didn't sit with them for the most part). Clary learned that Izzy was only a little older than her (they were both nine) and Alec was a year younger than Magnus (Alec was eleven, Magnus twelve). Best of all, Izzy and Magnus quickly hit it off together talking about glitter. (Magnus was a bit odd and had a weird obsession with glitter. He would have been a gigantic target for bullies if it weren't for the fact that his dad was really rich and was always donating loads of money to the school. So Magnus was mainly just left alone).

Clary smiled as everyone seemed to be getting along. She quickly filled Simon in on the new family and that her parents used to go to school with their parents. She would occasionally talk to Simon or Magnus if she was particularly bored.

Izzy would definitely make things a whole lot more interesting. For one thing Izzy easily could have been in the more popular group. She had a fun bubbly personality and was very likable. Instead she was sitting here with Clary, Simon, and Magnus, who had to be the three biggest social outcasts in the entire school. The fact that Izzy was "wasting her time one them" as some people would say was impressive even to Clary.

After lunch was recess, which was spent mostly talking. Clary wasn't that athletic and neither was Simon nor Magnus. Matt, Kirk, and Eric left them, but they weren't more than good acquaintances with Clary so she really didn't care. Izzy and Alec on the other hand seemed to be very athletic.

Izzy seemed to be more hyper than her brother, so she occupied herself on the monkey bars. Alec liked to climb really high and just sort of sit there as if he were scouting the whole area. Simon, Clary, and Magnus sat off a little more close to the side in the shade and were eventually rejoined by the two siblings.

Clary learned that the little boy she had seen earlier was Alec and Izzy's baby brother Max, he was two but people often thought he was younger because he was so small. Clary could relate to that, she thought. Everyone always thought she was at least two years younger than she actually was. Alec had asked if she was in an advanced class or something and a look of mild surprise crossed his face when Clary told him she was the same age as his younger sister.

According to Alec, their mother Maryse, was going just as nuts over the dinner tonight as Jocelyn. Izzy said their mom was always like that and didn't see what Alec was talking about. Both confirmed that apparently their parents had been really close when they were younger. Izzy said she wished the grownups would just go out to eat and leave them with Alec as a babysitter or something. Clary had to admit it sounded better than having the whole Lightwood family over at her house.

The rest of the day went well. Simon, Izzy, and Clary all made fast friends. Clary liked it because Izzy did most of the talking, Clary could stay quiet and listen as Izzy happily chatted away. At pick up Izzy waved and said "see you later", Clary gladly returned the gesture. She also got a better look at Izzy parents. Maryse look a lot like her daughter and Robert looked similar to Alec.

Luke told Clary he was proud of her for getting along with the Lightwood children and when Clary got home Jocelyn seemed like a giant weight had been lifted off of her when she was told Clary seemed to be making friends with Alec and Izzy. Then she made Clary sit still while she curled and groomed her daughter's hair before making Clary wear a dress, something that Clary rarely wore because she didn't like them.

Clary didn't like getting dressed up, especially since she didn't get the point. She was already getting along with Izzy, why was her mother punishing her further? Clary was far from a girly-girl that Izzy was and sitting still while her mother dressed her up was not Clary's idea of fun. She didn't see why Jocelyn was so worried about making a good impression on people who were supposed to be her old high school friends and considered holding her breath until she passed out, just to spite her mother. That however, would not be well received by her father so she didn't do it.

Jocelyn had been cooking all day while Luke was at work, he owned a small bookstore and Jocelyn was a stay-at-home mother who made extra money painting (she also had money from her family, but Clary was less aware of that). There was a chicken, and potato salad, peas, salad, a million other things and a buttermilk pound cake for dessert. To say Clary was impressed was an understatement. She had never seen so much food in her life, specifically because her mother wasn't one for cooking. She must really be trying to impress these old friends of hers. At least Clary had gotten pancakes and a cake out of it in one day.

The Lightwoods arrived at five thirty, Izzy skipped in, the skirts of her dress swirling around her. Alec, on the other-hand, looked like he had been forced through the same torment as Clary of being sat in a chair while being groomed by his mother. His hair, which had been rather messy at school, had been combed and even gelled. He had also been forced to wear clothes that he didn't wear every day, as his shirt and pants looked new unlike the ones he wore to school where frayed and had holes in them that were not stylishly put there (Clary only knew this stuff because of Magnus).

Max was indeed very small, if Clary didn't know how old he was and saw him tottering around the yard earlier she wouldn't have guessed the little boy was older than a year old. Alec was holding him and the little boy was looking around curiously with wide eyes.

Dinner didn't start until six so Clary took the Lightwood kids up to her room. Izzy, being slightly nosy and maybe a little entitled, made herself at home and poked around in Clary's stuff, briefly searching through her closet and examining the objects on her side table. Alec did nothing to stop her and sat down in the middle of Clary's floor, looking around in his own way of examining her room.

"You have a lot of books," Izzy remarked, having now made her way to Clary's bookshelf. "All of Harry Potter and the Lemony Snicket books. Oh! And The Magic Treehouse! I love those! Laura Ingles Wilder, The Chronicles of Narnia, the Grim brothers. A bunch of… comic books? You're a nerd like Alec."

"My dad owns a book store," Clary explained. "And I'm a geek." Not that she expected Izzy to know the difference. The other girl didn't even care and went on to explore Clary's art stuff. She didn't really like Izzy looking through her stuff, but she did put it back and didn't look through Clary's art book, though she did look through the pictures laying on Clary's desk.

"You're really good," Izzy said, picking up the picture of a squirrel Clary was working on. "Alec can kind of draw, he's more into the adult coloring books. I don't have the patience for them." She made a slight face and went back to looking at the pictures.

"My mom's an artist, my dad says I got it from her." Clary said starting to feel a little uncomfortable with how far Izzy was pushing.

Thankfully Izzy let it drop and started talking about herself. "Dad says I'm a lot like Mom when she was younger. We don't know what happened to Alec, he's just like that." There was a protesting indignant sound from said brother but Clary couldn't help but agree. Alec's quiet demeanor didn't seem to match either of his parents.

"Does Max match anyone?" Clary asked more as a joke as the little boy was only two.

"He's kinda like Alec," Izzy said surprisingly. "Quiet and observant, though more friendly and less grumpy."

Alec let out another sound of protest except it was followed by talking this time. "I am not grumpy," he said defensively.

"Yes you are," Izzy argued. "See, that right there is grumpy. Maybe if you smiled a little more-"

"I smile plenty!" the older brother interjected.

"I saw him smile when he was chasing you around the front yard this morning," Clary put in. both siblings looked at her startled. "I can see your front yard from my window," she quickly added. Alec and Izzy looked through the window, a perfect view of their front yard. Izzy suddenly squealed with delight.

"We could send each other messages! My window's actually right there!" she exclaimed pointing.

"But they're not close enough for you to read anything unless you hung up a banner. And you would have to yell to hear each other." Alec observed making Izzy frown.

"Oh you're not fun!" Izzy said slightly sulky now. "You always ruin everything with your logic."

"What about Morse Code?" Clary suggested. "We could have lights in our window."

"Izzy only knows S-O-S," Alec said monotonously. Izzy, on the other hand, seemed enthralled by the idea.

"But Alec knows it! And he's pretty good at reading it too! Learned it in Boy Scouts before Mom and Dad pulled him out."

Clary wished she could raise an eyebrow in question, but it was a feat she had yet to overcome. Instead she decided to just ask. "Pulled out?"

"The scout master called Alec gay after he learned Alec could braid hair. And he only knew that because he was trying to figure out why Alec was better than his son at knot tying. Alec got beat up by the other boys and when Dad found out he was furious."

Clary must have looked horrified because Alec quickly input, "Don't worry, I didn't like it anyways. And after that Dad made it his job to teach me all the manly things I need to know. And I don't have to sell popcorn anymore."

"Yeah, no one likes popcorn," Clary agrees. "My dad's a Boy Scout leader. You could join their troop if you wanted. Simon's in it, and Eric, Kirk, and Matt, and surprisingly Magnus, along with a few other boys. My mom wants to start a Girl Scout troop but no one's really interested."

"I'm a Girl Scout!" Izzy cried happily. "Tell your mom I'll be her first member, I thought I would have to miss cookie season this year."

"Izzy was the top seller in the county last year," Alec informed her. "She's rather competitive."

"Then she'll be glad to know there's only going to be one other rivaling troop here. Camille Belcourt's mom mad a daisy troop back in kindergarten and she only allows rich snobby girls in, that's the main reason my mom wants to start a troop but Camille's put everyone off to the idea."

"Well that means we have to make a troop and beat their snooty little butts!" Izzy declared as if declaring war. Clary could see what Alec meant by competitive.

"Guess I have no choice now," Clary joked to Alec who nodded seriously.

"Clary! Dinner!" her father called from downstairs.

Izzy skipped downstairs and proudly announced that she and Clary were going to form a Girl Scout troop and Alec would join Luke's troop. Clary and Alec looked at each other, sharing a look not being able to back out now. All the grownups were quite pleased with this and lead on a long discussion over dinner excluding the children about the subject of troops.

There was a lot of catching up to do and after dinner, Clary took Izzy and Alec to the back yard, after being allowed to change into pants. She wanted to take them to the clearing where she met Jace, but it almost felt like betraying Jace. She didn't know why, it's not like Jace would be there. Pushing it aside, Clary walked into the woods and towards the clearing.

Once there Izzy made herself busy quickly scaling a tree. Clary wondered how Izzy could be so graceful and nimble in a dress. Alec sat in the middle of the clearing like he had in her room and looked around. "This is nice, do you come here often?" Izzy asked, her legs dangling from a tree branch. Clary looked up at the impressive height Izzy had managed to climb in such a short time, and the more impressive feat of not being dirty in the slightest.

"She does that," Alec said from behind her. "It's like magic, but she never gets dirty."

"I'm pure of heart, it repels the dirt," Izzy claimed proudly.

"That doesn't work for me," Clary said and Alec laughed.

"So you come here often right?" Izzy asked again and Clary nodded.

"Cool, this is our new hang out," it was said so finally that Clary couldn't find a way to argue.

"She does that too," Alec said.

Clary's head swirled for a second. She had chosen to bring them out here. But what about Jace? Would he trust her if she brought other people out to their spot? It wasn't even their spot, and it was only Izzy and Alec. Still, Alec was the type to immediately tell a parent.

Clary inwardly groaned and nodded her head. "Sure, that sounds awesome."


	5. Chapter 5

As it turned out, Girl Scouts was fun. Together Izzy and Clary had managed to rack up a sizeable troop consisting of Maia, Catarina, Tessa, and them, which was much bigger than Camille's consisting of only her, Seelia, and Lily.

Luke's troop was bigger, with Simon, Matt, Kirk, Eric, Magnus who had joined with Alec, Jordan, Raphael who had joined only because of Ragnor, Ragnor who had been pulled into it because Catarina and Magnus, and Jem who had been convinced by Tessa to join.

Jocelyn thought it would be a good idea to work with Luke, they had woods in their back yard that was perfect for camping. They all learned how to pitch a tent and start a fire without matches. They were taught how to tell directions by the sun and what to do if they ever got lost and that you could eat every part of a dandelion if you really needed food. Then everyone made s'mores before going to bed.

The next day at school, everyone sat together at lunch, they had to join a few table together so everyone had a seat. Camille walked over to Clary and Izzy, followed by Seeliea and Lily. "So," Camille said, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. "I heard you decided to start a troop."

"Yeah," Izzy said, looking back at the blonde girl crossing her arms defiantly. "Do you have a problem with that, Camille?"

"You know Isabell, I would have let you join my troop. I'm sure you're an excellent cookie salesgirl." Camille looked around the table and stuck her nose up in disgust. "Too bad you've decided to associate yourself with… the lower class."

"Lower class?" Clary asked too dumbfounded to be amused. Camille tried to act like her mother, but coming from a ten-year-olds' mouth it sounded ridiculous.

Seelia stuck her nose up along with Camille, but Lily seemed to have spotted something that caught her eye at one of the tables. "Is that Raphael?" she asked, straining her neck to see the Latino boy sitting next to Ragnor. The two seemed to be in deep conversation and judging from Magnus's face the conversation was making fun of his glitter or his sudden strong liking to Alec (or both).

"What?! Where?!" Camille snapped, turning her head so fast Clary was surprised she didn't catch whiplash. Raphael kind of followed Camille around and he was decently close to Lily, but recently he had started handing out with Ragnor and by default Magnus and the rest of them. Camille, who did not like to lose her control over people, was not happy to see him hanging with as she called 'the lower class'.

"And there's Magnus too," Lily pointed, very obviously distracted. "He's with a boy. I know him, he's Isabelle's sister."

"He can't be!" Camille cried and marched off in strong denial. Seelia turned to follow, and slowly Lily, who kept turning around to look at who Clary presumed was Raphael.

"Well, that went better than I hope it would." Izzy chirped. Izzy, like Clary, probably hoped that something would aggravate Camille.

"I guess so," Clary says turning back to the table. Everyone else was happily talking, barely taking note of Camille.

"What's with that Asian girl?" Izzy asked digging through her pink bedazzled lunchbox.

"You mean Lily? She likes Raphael." Clary explained. Izzy looked over at Raphael, then to where Lily, Seelia, and Camille were sitting before shrugging.

"I don't see it, but whatever. We all have our interests." Clary couldn't help but snort, Raphael wasn't the most agreeable person in the world. She agreed with Izzy, she couldn't see what Lily saw in him. Maybe he was kind of cute? He actually looked really innocent partially because he was small like Clary. That stopped when he opened his mouth, his sarcasm and wit were more than Clary was willing to put up with. Maybe that's what Lily liked, Ragnor sure liked it. Oh well, who was she to judge?

The rest of the week went well, Jocelyn and Luke worked together a couple more times, Clary learned what poison ivy looked like and the basics of purifying water to make it drinkable. She felt a little guilty she hadn't let her mother do this earlier, everyone seemed to have fun and lunch was a lot better with so many new friends.

Izzy was plotting cookie selling strategies despite it only being mid-October when Lily walked up without Camille and Seelia.

"What do you want, Lily?" Izzy asked crossing her arms, Lily wasn't exactly looking at them, she was scanning the tables presumably looking for Raphael. Like always he was sitting with Ragnor making fun of Magnus and all his glitter.

"I want to join your troop," Lily said finally looking at them.

"You what?" Izzy asked dumbfounded, Clary was surprised too.

"I want… to join… your troop." Lily said slowly, speaking to them as if they were stupid.

"Why our troop? I thought you were with Camille, that we weren't good enough." Izzy, like Camille, was trying to look like her mother. But also like Camille, she looked ridiculous and the condescending look she was trying to give Lily wasn't working.

Lily sighed frustrated. "Camille is bossy and it's no fun. We barely do anything… and I heard you work a lot with the boy scouts."

Clary and Izzy turn to look at Raphael before looked back at Lily. "You just want to be with Raphael," Izzy said flatly.

This time it was Lily's turn to cross her arms. "That's not your business, and Camille really is awful to be around."

"Come on Izzy, let her join," Clary said. "It'll make Camille agitated."

Izzy huffed and thought for a minute. "Fine," she said reluctantly. "We'll tell Clary's mom that you want to join, but it better make Camille a lot more than agitated." She looked as if she were imagining Camille sprouting smoke form her ears like a cartoon.

Lily looked satisfied and walked off.

"Didn't expect that," Izzy said watching her go.

"I'm not surprised either," Clary said and Izzy nodded.

Lily pretty much immediately joined their troop. She was quickly put out when she discovered they didn't work as closely with the boy scouts as she thought, but took full advantage of the new group sit at lunch. Clary wasn't surprised to see she had managed to weasel her way into sitting next to Raphael.

Clary had been wrong when she said Camille would be agitated. Camille was furious. She marched over to the table with Seelia as soon as she found out Lily left to yell at Clary and Izzy (she almost was smoking from the ears). "I can't believe you stole one-third of my troop!" she yelled.

"We didn't steal anything," Izzy said calmly, trying not to look like she was enjoying herself. "Lily chose to switch troops. Maybe you should ask her." Camille, not in the mood to be argued with, turned in a huff and stalked off, followed by Seelia.

It had been about three weeks since Clary had seen Jace and she was really worried. Jace was with that psycho boy and the man who appeared to be their guardian was oblivious to the abuse. After school, if there wasn't scouts Clary, Izzy, and Alec would hand out in the clearing when homework was finished. Thankfully Izzy hadn't wanted to invite any more people to the spot where Jace met Clary. Clary wondered if Jace had started to come back but heard Izzy or Alec and run off. She wouldn't blame him though the idea hurt her. Still, she couldn't help but hope.

She, Alec, and Izzy were playing one after noon like usual when Alec suddenly froze. "I heard something," he said frowning and looking around.

"It was probably a squirrel or something Alec," Izzy said from her perch in the tree. They were playing faeries and Izzy was the princess. It was surprisingly more fun than Clary thought it would be, Izzy had a wonderful imagination and Alec narrated what was happening in a way that made it feel like they were actually in a book.

Alec didn't listen to his sister and went over to investigate. "I know I heard something," Alec said, he was near a bush.

"Alec, quit before you anger a squirrel," Izzy said, though a squirrel would not be the worst thing Alec could aggravate.

"Who are you?" Alec suddenly said catching Clary's attention, she and Izzy hadn't really been looking closely at what Alec was poking at. Slowly a boy stood up from inside the bush.

"Jace?" Clary said in disbelief, Jace was looking at her wide-eyed in fear.

"Wait you know him?" Alec asked looking back at Clary.

"Do you usually make friends with creeps hiding in bushes?" Izzy asked.

"He wasn't hiding in a bush when I met him," Clary said not turning back to look at Izzy. "He, he lives next door and he jumped the fence and ran here. I just came across him one day."

"There's a fence?" the siblings asked in unison.

"Cool! I want to go!" Izzy exclaimed excitedly.

"No!" Clary, Jace, and Alec all answered together.

Izzy sulked. "And why not?" she asked.

"Because, Izzy," Alec said relieving both Clary and Jace. "We can't just go over to someone else's property without permission. We could get into serious legal trouble for it."

"Fine," Izzy huffed and stared at Jace intensely, "Clary, do your parents know he's here."

"Well… no," Clary said. "But they won't care. And this is only the second time Jace has been over. The first time he didn't know."

"Your mom would have a freakout," Izzy pointed out causing Jace to sharply inhale.

"Fine, my dad won't mind so I think it's fine. My mom can get over it."

"Jace I haven't seen you at school, why not?" Izzy asked Alec was surprisingly quiet just looking at Jace with little expression on his face.

"I'm, my dad homeschools me. That's why." Jace said quietly.

"Yucky, if either of my parents tried that- just yuck. Alec would probably like it though. He's the favorite."

"I'm not the favorite, Mom likes you and your Dad's princess," Alec responded.

"You know what I mean," Izzy said rolling her eyes.

"Jace, what are you doing here?" Clary asked.

"I-I missed you so I came to see you, but you had other people here this time so I panicked and hid," Jace admitted.

"Is this the first time you've watched us?" Clary asked.

"This better be!" Izzy said hotly. "If you've been spying on us this whole time I'll hang you up in a tree by your pants!"

"Izzy!" Alec and Clary both sounded horrified.

"What?" she asked indignantly. "It's gross if he's been like a creep."

"She's right on that," Alec said crossing his arms. "You better not have been watching us for long."

"No, no! I just got here." Jace said holding his hands up. Clary noticed his hand was bandaged. "You caught me pretty much as soon as I dived into the bush… you- it was almost scary."

"Alec's like that," Izzy mumbled, still in the tree. "You can't sneak anything past him. He's like a parent. Big buzzkill if you ask me."

The whole scene was rather comical, Jace had just been caught and had minimal explanation and topics were switching between him and something completely random barely relating to the subject of Jace.

"Okay, fine. He can just the fence but we can't, when did you meet?" Alec asked getting back on subject.

"A little more than a week before school started," Clary explained.

"What was he even doing over here in the first place?" Alec raised an eyebrow.

"Well, um…" Clary didn't feel like she had the right to tell.

"It's complicated," Jace muttered looking down, Clary's eyes immediately went the Jace's bandaged hand.

Alec, who did have scary observant skills, caught Clary and what she was looking at. His facial expression softened and the matter was dropped.

"Well, Jace, this is probably the most informal meeting I've ever had, but I can't say it's the worst." He said causing everyone to smile.

"Do you want to play with us?" Izzy asked. "I'm the princess and you can be a faerie knight who goes on quests for his princess."

"We won't tell anyone you were here," Alec promised.

A small smile formed on Jace's face, and she realized she'd never seen Jace smile. "Okay, that sounds cool," Jace said eagerly.

Jace easily hopped into the game, becoming a faerie knight and he and Clary went on the quests Izzy wanted while Alec wove the story. It was fun having another person, another character, another idea generator. They barely noticed the time passed until it was getting dark and the parents started calling for them.

Jace went pale as death when he realized how late it was. "I have to go!" he cried and without saying goodbye raced off in the direction of his property. Alec frowned as he watched him go and looked at Clary.

"You know don't you," he says quietly so Izzy wouldn't hear.

"It's not what you think, Alec," Clary said before she realized how awful it sounded.

"I'm sure," Alec said sarcastically. "Clary, you have to tell someone. He needs to go somewhere safe."

"No, Alec, you don't understand. It's now what you think. Just- I'll tell you later I promise. But please don't tell anyone. I know you want to help, but that'll make things worse." Clary looked at him desperately pleading.

"Fine," Alec said giving in. "But if you don't tell me by the end of the week I'm telling my dad everything."

Alec didn't have to wait until the end of the week. The next day Clary was surprised when only Alec showed up. Or she was surprised until she learned that Izzy got in trouble and was not allowed to come over.

Clary took Alec out to the clearing where surprisingly Jace was waiting.

Jace's P.O.V.

"Where's Izzy?" he asked concerned.

"She got into trouble with mom. No big deal though, she's just not allowed to come over this time." Alec reassured him.

"You didn't get in trouble for staying late did you?"

"No, no trouble," Jace said. "At least not yet." He muttered thinking no one would catch it.

But apparently, Alec did because he frowned. "You know he has no right to do that to you." He said bluntly.

Jace looked up startled and he couldn't help glancing at Clary feeling betrayed and surprised she would have told.

"He doesn't know," Clary said. "He thinks it's your dad."

Jace didn't really relax at that, not comfortable with Alec knowing even if it wasn't all correct. He would have to be careful, Alec was like Sherlock with his observations. Alec got confused. "What do you mean it's not his dad?" he asked, looking between Jace and Clary for an explanation. Clary didn't fully understand either and turned to Jace. She had only been there for a few minutes while Sebastian was being a psycho.

Jace looked down at his hands and sat down, hugging his knees to his chest.

"He's- he's my brother." He said quietly.

"I'm adopted and he hates me for it. He blames me for his mom leaving."

Alec looked horrified. "What about your father? Does he allow this?"

"He doesn't know," Jace whispered, barely audible.

"How does he not know?" Clary asked. "He came out when Sebastian was three seconds from actually killing you."

"He doesn't want to believe anything wrong, so he accepts the lies Sebastian tells him and- and pretends that everything is fine and ignores that fact that when he goes away I have a broken rib or something." Jace wanted to start crying but held it in. Alec and Clary looked equally horrified.

"Why- why don't you report them both?" Alec asked. "He could be charged with negligence and your brother would get put in a mental ward or something."

Jace looked up swiftly. "I can't report him! Having to admit what happens… it would kill him. And Sebastian would weasel his way out of it somehow. I can't."

There was a minute of silence before Alec spoke again. "So what are you going to do? If you stay you're probably going to be killed. You, you have to get out of there somehow. You could always run away."

Jace looked at Alec confused. How could he care so fast? They had only met for a few hours yesterday. Why did Alec care? Why was he so upset?

"Jace you don't deserve to endure that torture trying to spare your father. If he blatantly ignores your abuse then he's not worth protecting." Alec said, thinking he was helping.

"You don't get it!" Jace cried standing up, startling Alec and Clary. "He-he's not a bad man. He loves me and he just wants a family again… his wife left and… it broke him…"

Tears were starting to well up in his eyes. Alec's words had hurtful truth to them, but there were also things Alec didn't know.

"You don't know everything Alec," Jace said turning away from both of them and starting back to the fence. "You have no right to tell me anything."

"Jace, Jace I'm sorry!" Alec said desperately. Jace didn't want to listen, his mind was telling him he was just like his father, not listening to something because he didn't like it. But Jace wouldn't be able to cope if he accepted what Alec was saying. Alec didn't know his father, he had never met him. He had never met Sebastian. Sebastian might be psycho but he was also broken somehow and Jace felt bad for him.

"Jace!" Alec called after him, Clary finally realized what was happening and called after him too.

"No," Jace simply said and walked back towards the fence.


	6. Chapter 6

Over the next three years the subject of Sebastian never really came up again, partially because Jace immediately shut off as soon as it was mentioned so no one talked about it. Alec and Clary were both at a loss about what to do, because they wanted to help, but Jace wouldn't let them help.

Jace had meanwhile been dealing with his own problems. Valentine had been growing more and more ignorant of Sebastian's ploys to be permanently rid of Jace, one of which he simply told Jace to run away. It hadn't worked to the older boy's disappointment, as Jace had been too scared to actually run away and hid in the woods until Valentine had found him perched in a tree crying. The father had demanded to know what had happened and threatened to not leave until he got answers when both boys remained quiet. Sebastian eventually "admitted" to getting into a heated argument with Jace where he told him to run away and never come back. Satisfied with the answer, Valentine then left for a three day business trip. Practically as soon as he had walked out the door Sebastian almost broke Jace's skull in with a crowbar, that Jace didn't know where he had found, but before he actually hit Jace in the head he decided the younger boy deserved to die slowly and locked him in the basement until Valentine returned early (in which Jace also did not die to Sebastian's sever dissatisfaction). Valentine didn't ask what had happened to Jace, who was pretty sure had given up getting an actual answer.

The younger boy still clung to the hope that if Valentine knew (or accepted) what was actually happening that he would have put an end to Sebastian's antics. He had to, right? Valentine wasn't a cruel man and he made it openly clear that he loved both his sons very much, he would never permit Sebastian to hurt Jace if he knew. Then again, who was that stupid? Alec nor Clary had to point it out, Valentine was naïvely oblivious to his oldest son to the expense of harm to his youngest. Every time Jace argued with himself over finally reporting Valentine and Sebastian, he always came to his father's defense that he was just in denial. That whatever had happened when his wife left had blinded him to reality. And Jace always convinced himself his father didn't deserve to go to prison, so he endured Sebastian's torture.

Clary steadily introduced a few new friends to Jace. Simon was Clary's closest friend, who had a pathetic friend crush on her while also being rather smitten with Izzy. The boy was annoying and senseless, often rubbing Jace the wrong way (a feeling he more than mutually shared with Alec and the two bonded over their annoyance with Simon). Magnus came as a surprise, as he had followed the small group (more likely Simon's loud mouth) into the clearing and caught them all red handed, and thus was added to Jace's ring of "friends". Unfortunately for Jace, Alec was completely head-over-heels with Magnus and he could bond with no one (he chose not to bond with Simon) over Alec's annoying crush on a walking jar of glitter.

More people slowly learned about the existence of Jace, Magnus was a bit of a gossip and Simon wasn't good at keeping his mouth shut. First it was Magnus's friends Jem and Tessa, and soon after Catarina and Ragnor, and Ragnor told an even more annoying kid (more so than Simon) Raphael who had even snuck into the clearing to see if it was true. Jace had been shocked and more than taken back by the small Latino boy's sharp tongue and was glad when he never returned, but couldn't say he was surprised to learn had told his friend Lily. Simon told his friends Matt, Kirk, and Eric. And two other girls Seelia and Camille (when snooping around) discovered Jace as well. Jace felt like the whole town knew by this point and every now and then had the urge to yell at everyone for not keeping a secret.

Thankfully, Jace's existence never passed much beyond those ears and never once made it into the ear of an adult. Magnus, Alec, Simon, Izzy, and Clary remained the only constant visitors to the clearing with an occasional drop in by one of Magnus's friends.

Jace had to admit, being able to talk to someone who wasn't Sebastian was nice, and it wasn't long before he got the warm feeling around them he got when Valentine babied him, without the dread that Sebastian would attempt to rip his head off. It took a while for Jace to realize that he felt truly safe for the first time in his life with his friends, even Simon (and that was saying something), partially because he'd never felt truly safe before. A small voice whispered in the back of his head that it was wrong that he didn't feel safe in his own home, no one shouldn't feel safe in their own home, Clary certainly didn't, Alec and Izzy didn't, Simon didn't, Magnus was often left alone so he was lonely but not afraid, not like Jace was. Jace told the voice to shut up, if Valentine knew what was happening there was no way he would tolerate it.

Sebastian slowly got better too. Well, not better, just accepted that he couldn't get rid of Jace. Valentine always came back before Sebastian could do anything fatal. So Sebastian gave up on his intent to kill Jace, and just plain abused him. Part of Jace thought the older boy was still trying to chase him away. Sebastian hit Jace, locked him in the basement for days on end, and broke plenty of bones, but he never attempted to kill Jace after Valentine returned home early while Sebastian was trying to drown him in the tub (Sebastian had almost succeeded, but Jace didn't dare tell him that). As soon as Sebastian gave up killing Jace, Valentine went away longer, leaving for almost up to a week, then Sebastian pressed his luck and stabbed Jace with a knife before Valentine pulled into the driveway and Sebastian couldn't make Jace's death look like an accident. The father was told Jace hadn't listened to his older brother and ran with a knife, which of course was fully believed and Jace was scolded for no listening to Sebastian while Valentine attended to his wound. Sebastian begrudgingly never stabbed Jace again.

Jace didn't go to the clearing a whole month after the stabbing incident, partially because Valentine stayed home and partially because if Alec, Izzy, and Clary found out there would be no convincing them not to tell their parents. He planned on telling them that Valentine had taken some time off work after Sebastian locked him in the basement for two days without food or water and that he couldn't have gone without raising suspicion. Unfortunately that also meant worrying everyone else crazy.

Clary's P. O. V.

Clary was really starting to worry about Jace, and so were Alec and Izzy. It wasn't uncommon for Jace to disappear a week or more at a time. He always insisted on keeping up the façade that everything was fine for his father, so if the man was home, Jace didn't leave. Sometimes he showed up with a fractured bone, which really worried her, Alec, and Izzy, but Jace always managed to convince them not to tell, more often than not threatening to never forgive them if they did.

This however, was more than worrisome, especially as recent Jace visited as often as every other day. It was starting to near two weeks, Jace had never been gone for so long. None of them had the heart to play without Jace. Alec shared her concerned look. "If he's not back by the end of the week, we'll tell, oaky?" they all nodded in agreement. Clary no longer cared if Jace forgave her, his safety was more important.

Jace reappeared after fifteen days, right as Alec had decided he was going to tell his parents. The blonde boy came racing in, or as fast as he could go without tripping, with quite the loss of breath. "I'm okay," he swore, bending over to catch his breath.

"What happened to you?" Izzy and Simon asked simultaneously.

"Sebastian got a little crazy so Father stayed longer." Jace explained straightening up. "I'm sorry I worried you, I just couldn't figure out how to tell you."

"Well you're here now," Alec said, still looking worried. "What did Sebastian do? What made your father stay for so long?" Jace looked down to avoid eye contact. "Jace, what did he do?" Alec asked.

"It was nothing, really," Jace insisted. "He kind of threw a fit and Father saw it."

"Sebastian threw a legit fit and your father still didn't believe the kids has issues?" Izzy asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well, sort of. He did stay," Jace pointed out. "Sebastian's given up now, though. He hasn't tried anything in a few months now."

"Then why did he freak out this time?" Alec asked.

"Father was gone for longer than usual, I guess he decided to try one last time. He's definitely given up now." Jace tried to reassure them.

"Sebastian's crazy," Clary pointed out. "He'll never give up, just bide his time."

"Well I think Father's also not going to leave for as long either." Jace added. Everyone looked skeptical, but said nothing more. Jace got the look on his face saying if they pushed any further he would shut off and leave.

"Well we're glad to know you're okay," Magnus spoke up and everyone nodded. "Needless to say we've all been very concerned for you." Jace nodded, rubbing his arm like he was being scolded for something.

There wasn't really any time for playing since Jace had arrived so late, hugs were exchanged before everyone started to leave, Clary wished she had more time to spend with Jace, especially if she wouldn't see him again for a few more days.

She was too busy thinking about Jace at dinner and her mother took notice. "Why are you so quiet Clary?" Jocelyn asked. "Usually you're rambling on about a game you played with Isabelle and Alexander."

Clary thought quick, not wanting to give the real answer. "Just thinking, Mom. How did you and Dad know Mr. and Mrs. Lightwood in high school?" she asked. "Were you always friends?"

Her mother looked a little uneasy, but Luke grabbed her hand under the table. "It's fine, Jocelyn, she can know that much."

Clary wondered what her parents were talking about and hoped it had nothing to do with her father. Jocelyn always hated talking about her father. Luke was her dad and the only reason she knew about her father was because she had been smart enough to put two and two together and ask why she was the flower girl at Luke and Jocelyn's wedding when she was round two and a half. Her mother had broken down and told her Luke wasn't her biological father. It never bothered Clary, not that she wasn't interested, but it bothered her mother so much she never had the heart to ask.

"We were all friends back in high school." her mother started, her voice soft and shaking a little. "The Lightwoods, Luke, your father and I, and a couple other people. We were in a small science club. It wasn't anything big, at least not until we got to college." She stopped for a moment and Clary wondered if she was going to continue. "When we got to college, that's when it really started to take off, we gathered more members. We started gaining recognition for our work, receiving awards. We were the best of our generation, the brightest. Your father was the leader Clary, he was so brilliant. It's the reason I fell in love with him. We all loved him, truthfully, in one way or another. We thought he'd lead us to greatness, we would follow his charisma to the ends of the earth and follow him off too." Jocelyn laughed at this point, a sad wistfulness in her eyes and Clary was upset she was forcing her mother to remember something so painful. "We were… we were the future, or-or we were supposed to be."

"Jocelyn, you don't have to continue." Luke said, squeezing her hand. Clary looked between her parents.

"Yeah, Mom, it's okay. I'm sorry I brought it up." Clary piped up.

"No," Jocelyn said, wiping tears away. "Clary's a smart girl, it won't be any use keeping secrets from her, especially know that she's been told. Clary, we were all very naïve back then. Your father was talking about changing the future for the better with all the scientific advances he was making."

"Wh-what was he working in? Or, what were youworking on?" Clary asked awkwardly.

"Biogenetics and psychology. Experimentation in fetal development. His mother had cancer, and she killed herself because she had depression. He wanted to create a world without Cancer, where we could figure out how to 'cure depression'." Jocelyn allowed herself to chuckle. "It was so odd because they were such completely different areas, but he had such a passion for it. It's why I married him, I could see his passion, his genuine care and desire to make the world a better place so people wouldn't have to suffer. But for all the study I did, we all did, in psychology, it wasn't enough that we could recognize that he was suffering."

"We were in denial," Luke admitted. "Jocelyn, you can't blame yourself. We were all blinded too."

"Is that why you left?" Clary inquired.

"No," Jocelyn shook her head. "Or it wasn't all of it. Your father, he became obsessed with his work. He would lose hours of sleep, staying up at all hours, going over results and research, writing and rewriting findings and conclusions. Maryse and I were both pregnant at the time and he monitored us both practically twenty-four-seven. He started to scare me, at times it would be like he was completely deranged, but the next day he would be fine and it was like nothing had happened. I began to question whether it was my sanity or his that was being lost. Everything was falling apart behind closed doors, I had nowhere to turn, and I just had to keep pretending and smiling and acting like everything was fine!" By this point Jocelyn was very worked up and was more hyperventilating instead of speaking.

Clary got out of her chair and walked over to her mother, hugging her. "It's okay, Mommy," she whispered, a name she rarely called her mother anymore. "You can tell me when you're ready."

"Oh my sweet, sweet girl!" Jocelyn sobbed, clutching Clary tightly against her body. "What did I do to deserve you? What did I do to deserve such a wonderful life?" Clary, not knowing what her mother was talking about, didn't say anything and continued to let her cry. Luke on the other hand did seem to know and quickly interjected.

"Jocelyn, you cannot blame yourself for what has happened. It was not your fault and out of your control." He said, thought it seemed to do little to console his wife.

Needless to say, dinner was cut short and Jocelyn locked herself in the bathroom, continuing to cry. "I'm sorry," Clary muttered to her dad as they sat in silence in the living room.

"Don't apologize," Luke said. "You couldn't have known, you were just curious." Clary had been curious but it wasn't the reason she had asked the question and for that she felt guilty. "Clary," he said gently, "Is there anything you want to talk about?" She wondered if he had guessed at what she was thinking.

"Did…" Clary began. "Did my father ever hurt her?" she eventually asked.

"If you're asking if he ever raised a hand to her, then no. he truly did love Jocelyn, and that's why I held my tongue. I loved your mother as well, but I also loved your father. We were best friends, and they were happy together. It was more important to me that they be happy, and that made me happy. And that was enough."

"Then… why did she leave if she was happy? And don't you have other friends form your group then?" Clary was trying her best to understand.

"Well, as she said, your father had problems we were all in denial about. I knew something was off, but I wasn't willing to admit it. And he was very good at acting, Clary, very good at pretending things were okay, that situations that were wrong were normal and perfectly fine." Luke stopped talking for a moment and she wondered if he was finished. "And he was also manipulative, he often feigned ignorance or naivety to hide things from us."

"What do you mean?" Clary asked.

"He started doing things that were not right in the name of science." Luke explained. "He was manipulative to Jocelyn, no he never raised a hand to her, but he abused her mentally. He would put her in situations she couldn't get out of and rescue her, acting like he never could have comprehended something like that could happen. He did it to us all, really. The closer you were to him, the more he caused you to rely on him. It's part of how he kept us wrapped around his finger, doing things we knew weren't right."

"What wasn't right?" Clary was very drawn in now, looking at her dad with wide eyes.

"Not something appropriate to tell a child of your age," Jocelyn said from the doorway, causing Clary to jump. She hadn't seen her mother and didn't know how long she had been standing there.

"So that's why you left him?" Clary asked. "Because of what he made you do?"

"No, Clary." Jocelyn said sighing. "Ultimately I left him because of what he was doing to our son… Clary, you have a brother."


	7. Chapter 7

Clary didn't manage to get anything out of her mother after that, not her brother's name, not what he looked like or anything. And Luke wouldn't tell her anything either, as not to upset Jocelyn. Clary told Izzy a little bit of it and both she and Alec questioned their parents to no avail. Izzy said that they seemed upset and her mother slightly frustrated that Jocelyn had chosen to tell Clary anything at all.

Clary cursed herself inwardly when she found out, she should have known than to reveal what she knew. It caused some brief tension between the adults and Clary was worried she had almost ruined their friendship until Luke convinced Robert and Maryse it was probably best for Izzy and Alec to hear what their parents had to say before they found out some other way. She also knew that they all agreed what they would keep form their children and she had no further hope of finding out anything else.

Izzy loved to speculate what else their parents could be hiding, what Valentine had been doing to Clary's brother and where they were right now. "What do you think they look like? Your mom just up and left, he could still be doing whatever he's doing."

"No offense, Izzy, but I've decided that I really don't want to think of that. It's rather horrifying." Clary said. She turned to Alec. "You can't find any pictures of them?"

Alec shook his head. "No, they're all locked away or destroyed or something. Anywhere I suspect them to keep anything is under strict guard and lock and key in my dad's office. I couldn't get to it if I tried."

Clary sighed. "Same here, and I know better than to push my parents. We're not going to find anything from them."

"What if you looked them up, like on the internet?" Magnus suggested. "Your mom said they were recognized and stuff? There's no way it didn't end up in some sort of newspaper or something. And there's probably a picture of the group too."

"Magnus, you're a genius!" Clary exclaimed. "We'll have to do it on a library computer though, if any of our parents see it on the search history…"

Everyone nodded in agreement. "This weekend?" suggested Alec. "We'll say we need to go to the library for homework."

"Sounds like a plan." Clary said.

Unfortunately, there was one foil to their plan. None of them knew what name had been and none of them were going to be told what the name was. All of them were aware that if they prodded too much, the parents' suspicion would be drawn. So Clary sat staring at the blank library computer screen with a scowl on her face, arms crossed over her chest in unadmitted defeat.

"We've still got this," Alec said. "Here, move over. We don't need to know the name. They're NYU Alumni, we'll just start searching and hope that something comes up."

The first search 'NYU science groups' pulled up way too many hits to filter through. Alec added the year they started and then the year they graduated, neither of them helped.

"I don't know why it's not bringing up more correct hits," Alec muttered.

"Try searching their names. Maybe that'll pull up something." Clary advised.

Alec thought for a second before frowning. "I think that'll pull up too much recent stuff. You don't know his name do you?" he asked, referring to her father. Clary shook her head. That was something she hadn't managed to pull possibly for this exact reason. "We can try our parents' names."

'Maryse Lightwood'

'Robert Lightwood'

'Luke Garroway'

'Jocelyn Fray'

Each name was tried and no good results came up, like Alec had thought the only information that was pulled up was recent, all within the last five years or so and mostly pertaining to their current jobs. "I don't get why this is so hard," Clary grumbled. "It's like the internet chose to burry this secret too."

"You'd think some kind of scandal would catapult them onto record for the rest of history." Magnus commented. "Not erase them from it."

"Unless the college decided to do that before the media could." Izzy hypothesized. "Their research probably had to go through the school first, right? So what if the board or whoever was in change, shut the whole thing down, and erased them from record to try to save face?"

"Izzy you're a genius!" Clary exclaimed softly, as they were in a library.

Alec seemed a little more unconvinced. "But they were recognized, that means at least something, a little bit, had to go on record somewhere." He sighed. "But those type of records are more in science journals and searching those without knowing what to look for would practically be impossible."

"You know what they were researching in," Simon piped up, Clary had forgotten he was with them. "Try maybe looking that up?"

"That might work." Alec whispered and quickly began typing. The hope, however, fell short as they searched through the first five pages. "Nothing," Alec finally said. "The words aren't pulling up the right things, you'd think research in psychology and fetal development would pull up some pretty specific stuff, but it's pulling up separate articles."

"That's disappointing," Izzy complained. "I was really thinking we would hit the jackpot. Clear the search history, Alec."

"What would we ever do with the information we found anyways?" Clary asked. "Present it to our parents? Something they've hidden from us our whole lives, something they're terrible ashamed to be associated with?"

"To be fair, you're only twelve, Clary." Alec pointed out.

"And it would depend on what we found out." Izzy added. "It's not like they were committing murder."

Alec's face screwed up for a reason Clary didn't understand or cared about. "Yeah, but you're almost fifteen Alec, you deserve to know at least something. It's not like they could keep something like this from us for forever."

"You underestimate our parents," Alec deadpanned, Clary had to cover her mouth to muffle a snort.

"Well, today was a valiant effort," Magnus announced. "But I think maybe we should give it a rest, at least for a little while."

"Yeah," Clary reluctantly agreed. "And we can't ask about this because our parents will get suspicious, but anything you can pick up-"

"You'll be the first one we tell." Izzy reassured her.

"Have we decided if we're going to tell Jace?" Simon asked.

"What would be the point?" Alec countered. "It's not like he would know anything."

They had kept this ordeal from Jace, not wanting to burden their time spent together with dark and depressing matters as it was already hard to steer form such depression every time Jace showed up with another bruise or black eye from Sebastian. "We're not telling him," Clary responded firmly. She thought Alec might have wanted to tell him. Despite Jace being closest to her, partially because she had found him first, Jace and Alec had quickly become tight knit friends, Jace being in-between her and Alec's age. Alec's fear of hiding his attraction to boys (mainly Magnus) form Robert, who was very boisterous about his opinions of non-traditional relationships, and Jace's fear of revealing Sebastian true colors to Valentine, who was an excellent loving father if it weren't for the fact that he seemed stupidly aloof to his eldest son's 'shenanigans' that were dangerously abusive to his younger son, had bonded them deeply intimate with each other in a way Clary had Jace had not.

It was a beautiful friendship and not one that Clary envied at all. She was aware that Alec would sometimes sneak out to see Jace, just the two of them (Izzy always knew anything Alec tried to hide) and Clary thought Jace deserved to have his own separate, private, relationship to Alec, the two being close as brothers and Jace having his own devoid of such a bond with his own actual sibling. She was just happy that Jace had found another person he trusted enough to confide in, to be vulnerable in front of because he so desperately needed that.

Really all the friendships Jace had made were beautiful. Izzy had quickly been taken in as his sister and he tried to act like he didn't care for Magnus or Simon, but he 'secretly' did and Clary cherished that he was able to have such close relationships while simultaneously dealing with Sebastian at home.

"Like Alec said, it doesn't even involve him, what would be the pint of telling him?" she restated. "I think it's best to keep him out of it."

"Yeah, but we're all working on this together, I feel like it's excluding him from this is unfair." Simon pointed out. "If we're all upset because we discovered something bad he's going to know something's up. Jace is extremely good at reading people." He was right, despite having few people to read, Jace was very adept gaging other people's emotions, always knowing if one of them was upset when everyone else was not. He was even able to tell if Alec had encountered a crude run-in at school about his engagement with Magnus when even Izzy had been oblivious to it.

"Well now it seems we don't have a choice," Izzy said and Clary sent a rare glower at Simon.

"Fine, I guess we'll tell him." She gave in.

Jace's reaction to their discovery was close to what Clary had expected, shocked and a lack of words. "Wow…" he said eventually. "I-I really don't know what I would do if I found out my dad was hiding something like that from me. That's some… pretty serious and deep stuff."

"Well, we're at a bit of a bump in the road, a flat tire you might say." Magnus spoke up. "We can't really find any more information on the matter so we're unsure about how much more there is to the story."

"I wish I could help," Jace said earnestly. "I'm sorry I can't do anything."

"It's not your fault," Clary said dismissively, "and there's probably not much you could be able to help with anyways. We're already tried looking it up and there's no way mine or Izzy and Alec's parents will tell us anything else."

"I still want to be able to help somehow, I feel useless doing nothing."

"We're all useless at the moment," Alec cut in. "There's nothing more any of us can do at the moment. We can just keep trying to find the right words to search and we can hope that our parents will accidentally let something new slip. Until then we're all no more than sitting ducks."

Jace's P.O.V.

Jace knew Alec was trying to make him feel better for not being able to help, but the older boy's words did little to console him. He wanted to help Clary and Izzy and Alec with this mystery that their parents were hiding from them, partially because he needed a distraction from Sebastian.

Sebastian had calmed in the severity of his physical actions, but his aggression towards Jace seemed to double in intensity every day. Jace often found Sebastian glaring at him, clutching whatever was in his hand (usually a knife or something else dangerous) so tightly in his hands that his knuckles threatened to pierce his skin, his eyes showing his contemplation on whether hitting Jace with all of his might with the objet would be worth it. Thankfully he always decided it wasn't and would stalk angrily out of the room. Thus, Jace often did his best to avoid his older brother completely.

Alec had been a nice confidant of his fears, becoming more like an older brother to him than Sebastian was supposed to be. Alec struggled with his own problems of being attracted to boys instead of girls (though it was completely obvious by his rather adorable and also overly annoying infatuation with Magnus, but Jace never dared to point it out) and his father's strong and clear disapproval of such feelings. This predicament lead Alec to allow his parents to entertain the idea that he was interested in girls like a 'normal' fifteen year old boy should be (hilariously enough Izzy had presented the idea that Clary had a crush on Alec giving both parents enough satisfaction to dub Simon and Magnus 'the gay ones'. Magnus of course knew about this while Simon and Clary very obviously did not. Jace was also sworn into secrecy).

Jace of course shared his harrowing experience living with Sebastian and trying to keep it from Valentine. Alec had no hope of understanding why Jace felt like he needed to protect his adoptive father form the horrible truth that was his oldest son was a deranged psychopath who tried to kill his younger brother, but Alec also never tried to understand and instead served as a safe space for Jace to talk.

One would have thought Clary to be just as viable as an option, but since she had witnessed Sebastian's psychosis in real life there was no way Jace would be able to tell her anything specific about Sebastian's attacks without risking her going into complete panic mode and telling her parents, especially after he had disappeared for a whole month after Sebastian almost managed to lethally stab him with a knife (not that anyone knew about that, but he had been gone for a month and he knew that everyone had been considering telling someone, afraid Sebastian had actually succeeded in killing him).

"Why don't you ever just stay gone?" a voice sneered at him.

"Sometimes I consider it," Jace sighed, avoiding looking at Sebastian who had decided to meet him at the edge of the woods.

"I'm sure you're much happier with them, your stupid little friends, why don't you just go live with them?" Jace's blood ran cold. "Oh yes, Jonathan, I know about the little club you've started in the clearing beyond our property. I should have half a mind and tell father about it."

"If you already know then why haven't you told him?" Jace knew he might be pushing it, but he felt irritable about not being able to help Clary. He desperately prayed Sebastian never got close enough to listen in on any of their conversation.

"I have a proposition," Sebastian said, surprising Jace enough to look up at his older brother to see if he was serious. "You actually go off and live with them, or just run off and I won't tell Father."

Jace raised an eyebrow. "Just run off? He'd go out looking for me, you know that."

"Not if he thought you were dead."

"He'd need a body. What did you plan to do, show him a bloody shirt of mine and tell him I got eaten by a bear?"

"Watch yourself, Jonathan," the older brother hissed, causing Jace to flinch. As much as he didn't want to deal with Sebastian, he didn't want to deal with a broken rib more. "We'd fake your death, obviously. Make it look like you got drowned in the tub or did something stupid and bleed out."

"First, he'd never fall for it. Second, I don't trust you to make me look dead without actually trying to kill me. And third, how sick of a person would you have to be to fake your death in front of someone you know?" Jace pointed off making Sebastian scowl. "And one more thing, if we somehow managed to make my heart stop long enough to convince Father I was actually dead without killing me in the process, what happens when he buries me? Or what if he tries to have me cremated?"

"I wouldn't let him burn you and I'd come dig you out, of course." The older boy said it like it was obvious. Normally Jace wouldn't believe under any circumstance would Sebastian willing dig him up from being buried alive all within the time limit of the younger not suffocating, but he said it with such earnestness that Jace was almost convince he would keep his word.

"I only want you dead because I want you gone, Jonathan." Sebastian spoke after most likely reading his adoptive brother's face. "If you were to go away without dying then I would gladly help you. Not only would it be less hassle, but it would keep a murder off my hands." Jace knew Sebastian had huge mental problems, but to talk about murder (or lack thereof) so casually like doing an everyday chore made Jace's blood run cold. Sebastian wasn't just sick, he was psychopathic.

"I'm sorry, Sebastian, but I'm not going to willingly allow you to bring me close to death, fake or not." Jace answered. The older boy's face contorted into a nasty expression Jace never wanted to see again. It was obvious Sebastian was attempting to control his rage.

"I'm giving you a chance, Jonathan. One chance, just this once. Take it, or leave it." He really meant what he said, every word of it, Jace realized and he wasn't quite sure what to think or what to make of it. On one hand there was a part of him with warnings flashing across his mind, telling him it was a trap. It was always a trap. But the other part, the most certainly stronger part was telling him to take the offer. He could be free. But where would he go? Despite what Sebastian thought he couldn't just stay with the Lightwoods or Clary. And what about Father? The grieving of thinking his younger son dead would be awful to endure, especially since it would be for nothing as the death was untrue.

"I can't," Jace said simply. "Whatever you think, Sebastian, it wouldn't work out. At least not for me so what do you care? But I couldn't move in with my friends, not really. Your plan isn't well thought out in any form or fashion. And above everything else, I couldn't live with myself knowing I would be causing Father so much sorrow and heartache."

A dead look passed over Sebastian's face. It was scarier than the one of rage. "Fine!" he snapped. "So be it, if this is what you want then it's what you'll be getting. But remember, I offered you a way out and you refused it." The sense of dread Jace had trudging back to the house after Sebastian was indescribable and terrifying.


	8. Chapter 8

Denying Sebastian was probably the worst thing Jace had ever done. Never in his life had he been so afraid that Sebastian would kill him. Scratch that, Jace wasn’t just afraid, he was terrified. Never in his life had he been so terrified that Sebastian would kill him. Jace was finding that he was rarely ever actually terrified of Sebastian, despite everything. There was always this underlying fear that Sebastian would do something crazy, but never a petrifying terror. He had been terrified when Clary had caught Sebastian with the knife, terrified the older boy would do something to her, and Jace had been terrified that one time he thought Sebastian would actually manage to kill him. But this time was different, this time Jace was dead terrified Sebastian was going to kill him while Father was still at the house. Sebastian hadn’t ever attempted to kill Jace while he knew Father was around, but now it seemed like he was close to reconsidering.

The second Father decided to leave, Jace knew he was done for, so when Father did leave to go to the grocery, Jace darted off before Sebastian had the chance to get to him. Unfortunately, Sebastian wasn’t stupid, and the back door had been rigged, a metal bowl, probably full of something, sitting above the door. If the door was opened the bowl would fall and clang loudly on the ground, alerting Sebastian where he was. And with Sebastian in such a dead rage, Jace didn’t want him following him into the woods. There wasn’t any time to grab a chair or latter to retrieve the bowl silently, so Jace did the only thing he could think of and darted into Father’s study, careful not to slam the door behind him.

One of the few things Father was very strict about was his study, neither Jace or Sebastian were allowed in under any circumstances. Jace listened carefully through the door for Sebastian. It seems like he had just made it as he could already hear the older boy inspecting the kitchen across the hall, checking in the cupboards for a curled up Jace. He held his breath and prayed that Sebastian wouldn’t check the office.

 

Sebastian’s P.O.V. 

Sebastian checked every cupboard and cabinet for a well-hidden Jace, leaving the doors open so if the younger boy who had somehow managed to evade him entered the kitchen, he wouldn’t be able to hide there. After being certain Jace couldn’t have cleverly hidden behind well-placed cans of soup or in the pantry behind Sebastian went to inspect the back door. He had placed an alarm system that should be triggered if Jace tried to open the door. He wouldn’t have had time to remove the bowl from the doorframe. The alarm definitely hadn’t been triggered and the door crack was too thin for even Jace to slip through.

Sebastian scowled in annoyance. Well, Jace certainly hadn’t run upstairs, he would have heard that as well (Jace shouldn’t even had time to hide well in the kitchen, but Sebastian knew better than to underestimate the boy). The only room left was… he turned and glared at Father’s office door. He wouldn’t. It was the only thig even precious Jace couldn’t get away with. He had chased Jace into Father’s office one time and Jace had gotten a nasty scolding, both boys had been warned never to enter under any circumstances ever. No, Jace wouldn’t dare go in there. Not when he knew he’d never be allowed out. Sebastian slowly crept up to the door and leaned in so that his mouth was practically pressed against the wood. “Jace,” he hissed. “If you’re in there, come out now. If you do, I promise not to tall Father.” He waited and listened for any type of response, a gasp, heavy breathing, anything. He was only met with silence.

Sebastian stared at the door handle for a solid minute before reaching out and twisting it, his hand almost instinctually jerking away as if he’d been shocked. Father’s warnings had trained him well. The door slowly creaked open an inch. “Jaacee,” he hissed again, this time, if Jace was hiding in the room he’d definitely be able to hear him. “Come out now and I won’t tell Father.” Again, he was met with no answer. “Fine,” he growled, “be that way.” He closed the door and backed away from it slowly. He didn’t know, how, but it was technically possible that Jace was not in the office and had somehow managed to sneak upstairs. Still, he couldn’t be too sure so, not taking his eyes off the door, grabbed a chair from the dining room. Using a scarf, he tied one end to the door handle and the other to the chair and then tilting the chair at an angle so that if Jace was in the office and tried to open the door more than a couple inches, the chair would drag on the floor and it would be heard from upstairs.

Confident with his invention, Sebastian headed upstairs to Jace’s room.

 

Jace’s P.O.V

Jace did his best to calm his nerves, he heard Sebastian go upstairs, but there was no way he’d be able to open the door without alerting the older boy. And once he was out of the room, then what? Sebastian would beat him to the front door. Could he make it out the back? He could but he’d definitely be chased now that Sebastian was made he was hiding from him. Jace hadn’t wanted to take the chance of Sebastian following him into the woods before, he was definitely not going to take the chance now. He had to make it out of the room without Sebastian knowing.

Jace looked around the room desperately for some way out, there was a small window next to the desk, but it was too high for him to reach. Hurriedly he searched for anything he could use as a stool, unfortunately the office was rather empty. Besides a desk and a chair, the whole room was filled with bookshelves stacked precariously with what looked to be journals and medical books. He didn’t have enough time to remove all the books from a bookshelf and then move to bookshelf and use it as a ladder, besides, Father would definitely notice that. The chair looked too short, and he was right. When he tried his fingers could barely reach the ledge, and the window seal was too narrow for him to grab anything if he tried jumping. He sighed, trying to find something that would give him some height. Why was the only window in the office a good six feet above the ground?

He could hear Sebastian shuffling around upstairs, it wouldn’t be too much longer before he was back and staring at the door. The desk might be tall enough, but it was a few inches too far away, if he could just move it… Jace looked up at the ceiling as if looking for Sebastian to be peering down at him through some unnoticed hole or the vents. If he was going to move anything it better be now, and quick. Holding his breath, Jace pulled on one right side of the desk. It was almost too heavy for him to move and made scooting noises against the hard wood floor. He had to stop even five seconds and listen for Sebastian, making sure he hadn’t heard and was rushing downstairs. 

He finally managed to move the desk enough that it was under the window. Jace climbed onto the edge of the desk, careful not to move any of Father’s things or make too much noise and reached for the window. He fumbled, nearly losing his balance a couple times before moving the desk just a little bit more. Hopefully it wasn’t enough that Father would notice. Now able to reach the window he pushed it open and jumped, he just barely grabbed a hold of the outside ledge and began to pull himself through the window. It was another six-foot drop to the ground outside, so he wouldn’t be able to close the window behind him. Father would most definitely notice that.

Deciding he would rather face Father than Sebastian, Jace tumbled through the window, thankful there was a bush to catch his fall, though he still had to bite his tongue to keep quiet. He crawled out of the bush and was about to make a run for the forest when he heard Father’s car pull up the driveway. That was odd, what was Father doing back so soon? He couldn’t have gone to the grocery store and shopped that quickly. Jace walked over to the car where Father was getting out. “Father, what are you doing back from the grocery so soon?” he asked.

Father smiled at him. “I realized I forgot my wallet, I drove all the way there just to realize I didn’t have any money. Where’s your brother Jace?” At that moment Sebastian poked his head out the front door, having also heard Father’s car. “Oh, there you are Sebastian,” Father sounded relieved and Jace wondered why.

“Father why are you back so early, it usually takes you an hour to go grocery shopping.” Sebastian’s gaze sharpened when he saw Jace, who shrank back a little and instinctively tried to hide behind Father.

Father laughed, “I was just telling your brother, I got there, and I realized I had forgotten my wallet. What have you boys been up to?”

“We were playing sneak,” Sebastian quickly covered. “Jace hides and I try to find him except he’s allowed to move but he has to be super quiet because I’ve set alarms for him.” Technically he wasn’t lying, except it wasn’t a game (not on Jace’s end, or it was a very deadly game), but it would explain whatever Sebastian had done to the house, undoubtedly more bowls above doorways or something of the sort.

“Okay, well neither of you have been in my office, have you?” Father questioned, Jace watched Sebastian carefully for his reaction. The older boy forced a smile, Jace had wondered if he would be happy to turn him in, but then again, Sebastian couldn’t prove Jace had been hiding in the office since he didn’t go out the door and Sebastian didn’t see him.

“No Father, not that I know, but I might have opened the office door to set another alarm to know if Jace went in there.” Sebastian was barely hiding a glare at Jace, but Father didn’t seem to be paying him much attention.

“You boys know you’re not allowed in there, right?”

“Yes Father,” they both answered in unison.

“Good, now I’m going to get my wallet and then go to the store and actually buy groceries this time,” without looking at either of them again Father walked into the house. Jace took his chance and sprinted off into the woods before Sebastian had the chance to get him.

Valentine’s P.O.V.

Valentine knew at least one of them had been in his office. Sebastian thought himself a good liar, and he was, but there was no fooling his own father. Valentine always knew when either of his sons lied. Looking around the room he saw that almost nothing had been touched except that his desk had been moved, mostly likely so that whoever had been in the office could climb out of the window.

There was no need to guess, he already knew it was Jace, Jace was the one who had come running from the direction of the window, and Sebastian had learned quickly from his warnings not to go into the office. Jace had just been told. The younger boys must have run into the office to evade Sebastian, which means that he would have to keep a closer eye on both his sons. It wouldn’t do to have Sebastian kill Jace. He would have to talk to Sebastian about his escapades with Jace if the younger boy was desperate enough to run into his office for safety. More cameras would also need to be set up to keep a better eye on Sebastian’s psychotic outbursts. But it was nothing that couldn’t be managed at the moment.

Still, Sebastian was turning out to be more problematic than Valentine had initially thought he would be. Originally, he had been very easy to control, very predictable, but Sebastian had also been a kid then, he was growing up and the boy was by no means dumb, never had been, but his temper. He was starting to get increasingly inpatient and willing to take risks that made him highly unpredictable, and that wasn’t good. But it also made him increasingly more interesting to study. The discoveries he was making on brain damage was leaps and bound beyond what the medical field knew. If only they didn’t worry about appearing so ethical. Jocelyn had had that problem, and so had Luke and Robert and Mayrse. They had betrayed him, the whole scientific community had betrayed him, erased him from the record of history, all his discoveries. But he still had his studies, all of his precious recordings.

Thankfully Jace had been more concerned with getting out and hadn’t looked in any of the journals. The video recording would have to be watched just to be sure. Scooting his desk back and closing the window, Valentine checked everything once more before exiting his office. “Boys, I’m off to the store this time. And I have my wallet. Be good and don’t cause any trouble.”

“Jonathan already left, Father.” Sebastian said, greeting him at the door, already taking down his alarms. The older boy smiled in what was supposed to be nonchalant but clearly hiding anger. “I thought he might have waited to at least say good bye to you.”

“Well that’s alright, Sebastian.” Valentine answered. “He’s still just a boy, of course he wants to go off and play. I’ll be back before two hours, okay?” Sebastian said nothing else and nodded. “And Sebastian? Remember that my office is strictly off limits for both of you.” He added before leaving.

He needed to get to the laboratory to check the video tapes just to make sure something hadn’t happened, and Sebastian had managed to cover it up. Sebastian watched him get into the car and back down the driveway, not moving until he knew his father was out of sight. Valentine flipped his phone open and quickly punched in a number. “Hello, Pangborn?” He said into the phone. “Yes, pull up the recording of my office within the last hour and make sure it’s ready by the time I get there. And one of you needs to go grocery shopping.” With that he snapped the phone shut ending the conversation.

 

When he arrived at the laboratory, which was just a storage locker set up similar to his office, he no longer had access to an actual laboratory, so he had to make do with what he did have access to. Pangborn was waiting for him, the computer ready with the footage pulled up like he was ordered, Blackwell out presumably getting the groceries. “One of the kids was in the office.” Pangborn tells him.

“Yes, I know, that’s why I told you to pull up the footage. Did he do anything? Besides move my desk and climb out the window, I know about that.” Valentine said, waving him off dismissively.

Pangborn shook his head. “No, he stayed in there for a few minutes before climbing on your desk, but he didn’t do anything. He ran in there though, like he was being chased. Probably the older one.”

“Just as I thought.” Valentine muttered as he watched and re-watched the video, it was always the older one. He would stop having to leave so long, if Sebastian thought he had enough time to do something, presumably kill Jace, he would take it. Which was a shame because Sebastian was so interesting to watch. “When Blackwell returns with the groceries I need more cameras bought. I’ll place them in the house and connect them, we need to keep a closer eye on Sebastian, he’s starting to become… reckless.”

Pangborn nodded and wrote the note down. “And I’m going to start moving my journals to the lab.” Valentine added. “In case something like this happens again, I can’t have either boy go through them. You and Blackwell will have the new job of copying everything, precisely, onto a jump drive. Hopefully not, but I may need to destroy the journals and I refuse to let all our work go to waste.” He was met with a ‘yes sir’. 

Valentine watched the video a few more times for good measure. Jace raced in and stood in the corner for three full minutes before making a move for the window, taking him an additional thirteen minutes to carefully and quietly move the desk enough so he could properly reach the window. He looked in none of the journals. Sebastian was presumably looking elsewhere for his younger brother as he didn’t enter the study once, even after Jace left. “Pagborn,” Valentine said when Blackwell returned with the groceries. “Add another thing to the list, I want microphones too, one for each camera. You’re going to start recording their conversations as well.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies! Apologies for going on hiatus again for like… seven months… yeah, I uh, meant to finish and post that chapter like back in January (why I talk about NaNoWriMo)… so anyway, just in case you loyal few readers (seriously if you have been following me for a while congratulations, you have more faith in me than I do) what I am calling ‘hate’ was basically the only not nice comment I’ve received – and it was in fact very rude – but it was not something I would let affect me (like it had nothing to do with the leave of absence, I assure you). Again, thank you for not only reading my work, but sticking around this long, you have no idea how much that means to me. Love y’all!
> 
> P.S. Surprise! Valentine was evil(ish) all along! If it seems like it came out of nowhere it kind of did (it was not the original plan). Anyway, everyone’s at least 16-17ish so I can finally get to like what I want to. Love y’all!
> 
> [edit] P.P.S. I usually don’t edit ANs after I write them, which I kind of explained but not really (it’s the reason all my Ans are so out of date). Also, I don’t think I ever officially said this, but this is an AU… so yeah. Love y’all

**Clary’s P.O.V.**

“Congratulations Alec,” Clary said, kissing his cheek as the camera snapped. “School’s going to be lonely without you next year.”

Alec grinned and scooped her up for another picture. “No it won’t, you’ll still have Izzy and Simon to keep you company, lord knows Izzy’s more than enough company by herself.”

Clary shook her head, her graduation cap falling off. She couldn’t believe she was entering her junior year while Alec was graduation and heading off to NYU. “Yes it will, it was extremely lonely without Magnus this year, don’t deny it.”

Alec’s cheeks flushed pink. “Yes, well Magnus is more than enough company by himself as well, of course his lack of presence is always felt.”

Clary looked over at Robert and Mayrse who were looking over the pictures. “You should tell them,” she said as he set her down. They continued to play the game, letting the parents think that Clary and Alec liked each other. Robert had looked like he would have an aneurism when Alec attempted to come out his sophomore year. Thankfully Maryse yelled at him about what if Alec turned out to be gay – not that she thought Alec was gay – and Robert had slowly changed his attitude, just recently announcing that if Alec or Izzy were gay – not that he thought either of them were – that he would still love them, and it would not change his opinion of his children. Everyone, specifically Alec, was still more than a little uncertain of Robert’s reaction if he ever did find out Alec was actually gay, but it was nice to see that he was able to change and keep a somewhat open mind.

Alec shrugged, “I’ve thought about it, but I don’t want to ruin my graduation. They’re so happy of me choosing their alma mater, I don’t want the one time they’re genuinely proud of me to be crushed.”

“Your parents have always been proud of you Alec,” Clary said crossing her arms. “I know Roberts particularly a fickle, but he loves you and I think he really means it when he says you being gay wouldn’t’ change his opinion of you. It’s the perfect time to tell them, right before you go off to college.”

Alec sighs. “Yeah but what are they going to think of me going off to college with my boyfriend, who I’ve been lying to them about for about the past six years of my life?”

“Congratulations?” Clary tired, she had a feeling she wasn’t going to manage to convince Alec tonight. “I just want you to be happy Alec,” she said.

“I know,” Alec said smiling down at her. “And I love you for it, now go off and have some fun, this party technically isn’t just for me.”

“Yes, it is,” Clary said, walking over to where Izzy was cutting the graduation cake.

 

“I was just about to leave, where have you been?” Clary asked Jace when he finally appeared in the clearing. He looked better the last few years than before, less bruises, not as thin. Clary didn’t know what happened but Jace looked like he was actually being taken care of for once in his life, she supposed she should be happy about it.

“I didn’t think you would come,” Jace answered back. “Aren’t you supposed to be at a party? Alec’s graduation party? Like as his unofficial girlfriend?”

“Party ended early because Maryse dropped her camera,” Clary explained. Jace raised an eyebrow, obviously not believing her. “Fine, she dropped her camera because Alec kissed Magnus full on the lips in front of everyone. So there, I didn’t do anything.”

“I missed Alec coming out?” Jace asked, sounding a little sad about it.

“You missed me coming out to my parents,” Alec corrected, Clary turned around to see Alec, Izzy, Simon, and Magnus all walking into the clearing. “It wasn’t worth much though. They’re just in shock. Unfortunately, the rest of us couldn’t escape as fast as Clary, here.” he pretended to give her a look.

“We brought you cake,” Simon said cheerfully, holding up the box of cake he was carrying.

“You guys didn’t have to do that,” Jace said trying to wave them off.

“Of course we did!” Izzy chirped. “You’re our friend too, Jace. It wouldn’t be the same without you.”

They all sat down in a circle and started divvying out the cake, Alec had been smart enough to bring paper plates and plastic utensils.

“I brought drinks!” Magus exclaimed, holding up a bottle sparkling cider, Alec rolled his eyes and pulled out some Dixie cups as well.

“This is so much better than any stupid part,” Simon said, mouth full of cake, everyone nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, but we need some games!” Izzy complained, downing her gulp of cider.

“Spin the bottle!” Magnus suggested, waving the now empty bottle.

“Really?” Alec asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes!” Izzy exclaimed over her brother. “Who goes first?”

“Wait, how do you play spin the bottle?” Jace asked, looking flustered.

“It’s basically in the name.” Simon piped up, swallowing his cake. “You spin the bottle and whoever it lands on, you kiss.”

“It’s a _kissing_ game?!” Clary didn’t think she had even seen Jace this embarrassed. Simon snickered but Izzy smacked him.

“You don’t have to play if you don’t want to,” Clary told him. “And if you’re really uncomfortable we’ll just play a different game.”

Jace muttered something indignantly. Clary rolled her eyes, and everyone took it as Jace’s ego not letting him say no. “I’ll go first!” Izzy giggled, setting the bottle on the cake box and giving it a whirl. It landed on Magnus.

“Okay, pucker up Sparkles!” Izzy said, making her way over to Magnus.

“ _Sparkles_?” Jace asked sarcastically, but Clary could tell eh was trying to hide his awkward discomfort. Every now and then she forgot that Jace had grown up without pop culture or even regular human interaction.

“Shut up!” Magnus playfully snapped at him. It didn’t even end up being a real kiss, it was the thing girls did in cheesy movies where they’d kiss each other’s cheeks.

“Are we going in a circle?” Simon asked. “Or are we going on whoever the bottle lands on.”

“Circle, in case the bottle likes someone.” Izzy said winking.

Simon was next and it landed on Alec, who looked very unamused. “Okay, so how do we uh-“ Simon started.

“Just because I’m gay does not mean I’m attracted to you.” Alec deadpanned.

“No! Of course not! I just- I mean-” before Simon could finish Alec had crawled over to him, grabbed his face, and kissed him hard. Simon pulled back after a moment in a daze. “I think I might be gay.” He muttered. Alec rolled his eyes and returned to his spot.

“My Lightwood!” Magnus swatted at Simon. “You have your own!”

“Kinky!” Jace commented, wagging his eyebrows.

“I’m uncomfortable by the fact I may have turned Simon gay,” Alec stated.

Izzy rolled her eyes, “Please, Simon’s the most obvious pansexual to pansexual on the planet. He still skypes George Lovelace daily even though they only met once for half an hour at a college tour.”

“Izzy!” Simon cried. “You weren’t supposed to tell anyone!” Jace snickered.

“They’re having a wedding in June if anyone’s interested.” Izzy continued.

“What I talk about on Skype is none of their business and none of yours!” Simon interjected.

“Wait you’ve actually planned your wedding?” Alec asked laughing.

“Not our wedding together! Just, what our individual weddings would be like… It just so happens that we agree on a lot of stuff.” Simon flushed red and Jace was clutching his stomach in a fit of laughter.

“Oh Simon, you poor hopeless romantic you,” Clary shook her head. “I do hope I’m the maid of honor.”

“Sweetie, you are not going to have a higher spot than me at my boyfriends own wedding, I’m the maid of honor. You’re walking Simon down the aisle.” Izzy said, crossing her arms.

Simon was hiding behind his hands, everyone else was laughing. “Okay, okay, the picking on Simon quota is filled for the day, back to the game.” Magnus said shushing everyone. He spun the bottle and it landed on Jace.

“HA!” Simon laughed obnoxiously and pointing. “Karma’s a bitch!” Jace had gone white as death and looked very horrified.

“Oh come now, don’t look like that when you have the rare opportunity to kiss the magnificent moi,” Magnus clicked. Jace let out a strangled noise from the back of his through at a response.

“Jace, you don’t have to play if you don’t want to,” Alec offered.

“No,” Jace said swallowing. “I’m comfortable enough in my masculinity to do this.”

“Jace…” Clary asked timidly. “You haven’t kissed anyone before, have you?”

Everyone went quiet and Simon stopped laughing. “Jace,” Magnus said softly. “Really, you don’t have to do this. We’re not going to make fun of you. You’re our friend.”

Jace set his jaw stubbornly. “If I’m going to have a first kiss, it might as well be as memorable as this, pucker up, Sparkles.”

Magnus raised an eyebrow, but Jace seemed determined. The kiss was awkward and neither Magnus nor Jace looked like they enjoyed it afterward. Simon had gone back to laughing again (everyone was laughing after the look on Jace’s face).

Clary went next and the bottle landed on Izzy. “Everyone’s kissing the wrong Lightwood,” Magnus teased, earning a smack from his boyfriend.

“Come here wifey,” Izzy said grinning. Clary had kissed girls before in games like this, but she’d never kissed Izzy. Izzy on the other hand seemed to like kissing girls just a little too much to be completely straight.

“Okay honey-poo,” Clary played along, causing Izzy to cackle.

“On our wedding we shall both wear gold and purple like the queens we are,” the raven-haired girl announced.

“Are we getting married in June with George and Simon?” Clary asked, making Simon’s laughter go to choking.

“Of course we are! Now kiss!” Izzy grabbed Clary by her waist and kissed her fiercely.

“OTP, biscuit!” Magnus said as the two girls pulled away. “We can all have a big gay wedding, me and Alec, Simon and George, and you and Izzy.”

“Sorry Magnus, but I’m not sharing a wedding with you or Izzy,” Clary said, earning an indignant overdramatic gasp from the two of them. “What? You both are going to be bridezillas and dealing with one of you will be bad enough. I won’t be juggling both of you on the same day, especially not on my wedding.”

There was a grumbled “true” by both of them, though it could barely be heard over Alec and Simon’s laughing. Jace on the other hand had an odd expression on his face and he seemed very hard _not_ to look at Clary to any lengths possible while also staring directly at her.

Alec calmed down after a minute (unlike Simon who was still giggling uncontrollably) and flicked the bottle, spinning it like a top until it finally stopped on Jace. “The bottle likes you, Jace,” Magnus teased.

“You’d better kiss me better than you did my boyfriend,” Alec joked.

“I can’t guarantee that you won’t end up with glitter in your mouth,” Jace quipped back.

“The bottle’s going to land on Magnus for your turn,” Simon warned in a sing-song voice.

“Shut up, Lewis! Or I’ll kiss you next,” Jace dared.

“Is that a promise?” Simon poked?

Jace rolled his eyes and kissed Alec, it went better than his one with Magnus. “I know now what Simon means by being turned gay by Alec’s kissing,” Jace said, falling onto his back.

“Your gay is contagious, Alec,” Clary laughed.

“Nah, he’s just a really good kisser,” Magnus said, kissing his unamused boyfriend on the cheek.

“I wish I was a good enough kisser to make people change their sexuality,” Simon said wistfully.

“You do make people change their sexualities,” Jace answered. “You open your mouth and suddenly gay guys are straight and straight girls are lesbian.”

“Haha,” Simon said mockingly. “But I have a Skype boyfriend to prove you wrong.”

“So you admit you’re getting married in June!” Izzy cried triumphantly.

“We’re not getting married before we’re out of school!” Simon exclaimed back.

Izzy ignored him and yelled “victory!” while shoving her mouth full of cake.

“I don’t wanna wait that long to get married,” Magnus fake whined.

“We’re not all getting married on the same day,” Clary reminded him, Magnus looked delighted.

“Oh right! Let’s get married right now, Alexander!” he said, jumping up.

“Get married after we finish the game,” Izzy said, washing down frosting with a gulp of apple cider. “Your turn Jace,” she said, nudging him.

Jace sat back up and gave the bottle a whirl, Clary followed the neck lazily until it was staring straight at her. She could feel her face burn and her eyes refused to meet Jace’s. Izzy gave a loud hoot. “Better get this over with,” Jace said. Clary finally looked over at him to find he was already standing up. “I’m sure you’ll be a much better kiss than Magnus.”

“But not as good as Alec,” Simon interjected, getting elbowed in return by said Alec.

“I don’t know if I could ever live up to Magnus,” Clary said, forcing herself to look Jace in the face, he seemed to be flushing just as badly as she was. She hadn’t felt this awkward playing this game since the first time she’d played it back in eighth grade.

Jace was a good head taller than her and since they were both standing up she had to get on her tiptoes to kiss him. Their lips brushed softly and Clary thought that was it until she felt Jace wrap his arms around her waist to pull her closer. Clary wrapper her arms around his neck as their lips pressed together harder. It wasn’t until a few loud wolf whistles that she realized Jace’s tongue was in her mouth and her fingers had curled into his hair.

At the same time both of them jerked apart like the other burned. Simon was clapping and Izzy gave another whistle. Clary felt her whole body go red as her hair and she turned back to Jace who was staring at her like he’d seen a ghost. Without another word, Jace turned and bolted back towards the fence, leaving everyone silent and stunned.

Clary slowly brought her fingers to her lips, wondering if she’d imagined everything.

 

**Jace’s P.O.V.**

Jace felt like a coward for running. It really wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just a kiss.

Except it wasn’t just a kiss.

What had happened with Magnus was just a kiss. What had happened with Alec was just a kiss.

But what had happened with Clary was so much more.

Clary was the first person he’d ever met outside of his family and for a while she was one of literally three people in his life. She was the reason he was now friends with Alec and Izzy (and Simon and Magnus). She’d brought so much good and happiness to him. More than he probably deserved.

So then why did he decide to ruin it?

Jace had liked Clary for a long time. Practically from the moment he’d met her. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was basically the only option he had, but he liked to believe it was more than that.

Clary was smart and stubborn and kind and beautiful. She was possibly the most important person in the world to him and definitely the person he loved the most. And they were friends, they had a wonderful friendship that was going on eight years.

And then he went and ruined it.

It wasn’t the fact that he liked Clary that was the problem, he could hide it. In fact he thought he’d done a pretty good job at hiding it too (he’d had a lot of practice hiding his true feelings, growing up with Sebastian).

He ruined it by kissing her and let it start to get beyond just kissing her. And she knew it was beyond a kiss to him. Magnus, Izzy, and Simon knew, Alec probably knew.

It was just supposed to be a game, a dumb game where everyone made fun of Simon and occasionally Magnus. What was supposed to have happened was he quickly kissed Clary, Izzy rolled and possibly got her boyfriend, Magnus might get Simon, Simon would get him. That’s what should have been happening at the moment, he was supposed to be antagonizing Simon about kissing him. Instead he was standing he was standing at a fence after running off like a coward.

Jace shook his head, Clary had looked so mortified when he’d pulled back and looked at her. Was she really that embarrassed by what had happened? He didn’t blame her.

Clary never spoke of any boyfriends (partially because everyone thought she was dating Alec, so guys didn’t really approach her), but Simon and Izzy and even Magnus and Alec talked about kids at school they liked. Jace couldn’t recall one instance where Clary talked about a cute boy. Simon, Izzy, and Magnus teased her occasionally, but that’s all Jace ever heard of it.

But she had to have someone she liked, he knew from Izzy that there were a lot more guys interested in her than she was aware of. If she hadn’t been helping cover for Alec, she’d most definitely have some sort of boyfriend. He shouldn’t let his dreams get so far away from him. Because that’s all it was, a wistful dream that would never happen. He could never be with Clary; the circumstances of their relationship were too… not normal. Their lives were too different.

Magus had gone off to college last year and Jace suddenly realized that Father had never once mentioned college to him or Sebastian. Alec was graduation this year and he was the same age as Sebastian, yet it didn’t look like his brother was going to be leaving any time soon. Clary, Izzy, and Simon would be gone soon enough and Jace would still be stopping by the clearing even though he knew they were gone, hoping and waiting that maybe by a miracle one of them (even Simon) would stop by.

Raking his hands through his hair, Jace pushed those thought aside and wondered what he’d end up giving as a pathetic excuse for an explanation. He vaulted over the fence, feeling a sharp sing in his hands, but not realizing what it was until he looked at his palms and saw the blood.


End file.
